tbh I don't think any of these tournaments give us the best player of the day because of the randomness of the game itself, which includes luck, who you play, what deck you go against and that players skill.
I'm not going to deny the role luck plays in the outcome of a Pokemon TCG tournament. However, I've seen plenty of instances in which "luck" (as in matchups or bad hands) was not a factor for the player with skill (I recall the 2006 Southeast Regionals in which Jake Burt won with Polistall, despite being paired up against many "autolosses"). I certainly think that skill is something that can reveal itself by the end of a tournament, and I'm sorry you don't see things the same way. As it stands though, a T4 cut at City Championships means that nothing can wrong for you, otherwise you lose. All players have a stroke of bad luck here or there, but I don't think it should prevent a person from winning the tournament for that day. If a T8 cut means that the "best player" of the day is better represented, then I'm all for it. If this game were just a random shot in the dark, I wouldn't be posting this at all, because I wouldn't play.
The only true way to see who the best player is have everyone play the same deck and that defeats the purpose of playing.
That's hardly the only way to determine skill. I mean, you kind of skipped over such things as deckbuilding, creativity, ingenuity, the whole "secret deck" phenomenon... these are all things that are indicative of skill. Doing what you proposed would actually lend itself to luck being an even more important factor than it already is.
Bottom line people if you are so worried about winning all the time you are setting yourself up for disappointment because it is the nature of this game, so everyone take your unrealistic ambitions and sour grapes out of your butts and have fun and bond with people. Isn't that what is all about??
I really feel that you're responding more at this point to the recent discussions that have come up concerning "elites" as compared to players in general. I'm not after a win with my response, I simply want to see the best player win when it comes to playing in a tournament. I think this is something everyone wants; otherwise, we wouldn't even do top cuts -- we'd just play a few rounds and call it quits. I'm not saying what I've said because I want to win, win, WIN. I just want things to be fair for everyone. Furthermore, for me a great deal of the "fun" part is competing. It's not something that makes me a bad person, I just like to see the results of my intellectual effort when it comes to playing this game. I stopped playing way back in 1999 because there wasn't any competitive environment for the game (at least not that I was aware of). But since I've found fun in the competitive aspect to this game I've stuck like glue to the scene. I've made plenty of friends by playing this game as well, so don't think of me as a sour person only wanting to win a tournament. I just have fun in competing with other brilliant minds.