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I’m late to this thread, sorry! But these are great questions. I’m fairly new to entering photo contests, but I have formed some opinions from the limited experience.
1. I feel the spirit of the rules should prevent artificially changing the subject and scene, but otherwise allow the photographer to present the photo in its best form. Some rules are simply too prescriptive, like minimum percentage crops and not allowing backscatter removal. I dive a lot in the cold waters of Monterey CA, with loads of particulates in the water. Even with careful snooting, it’s hard to avoid some backscatter. Who wants to see a photo full of backscatter?
As for cropping, some of us shoot high resolution sensors, and can take advantage of significant cropping without sacrificing much quality. I think a rule like max 15% crop has little value. Why 15%? Why not 30%? Or 0%? A recent competition I entered simply enforced a minimum pixel size (3000 on shortest side) which made a lot more sense.
If competitions want to favour in-camera skills, I think they should state that up front, or offer categories like “Traditional” which allow very little post processing so photographers can show off their in-camera skills.
2. I haven’t done any baited dives, so don’t have strong opinions yet. I think it’s important to have rules around any subject manipulation, including baiting, and require disclosing any use of manipulation to the contest.
Cheers!
Chris