Okay, a serious topic. I think this goes back into marketing. At the store where I run league, they refuse to have regular supply of any set before Diamond and Pearl. I go to target: they do not have a regular stock of Holon Phantoms, Crystal Guardians, Dragon Frontiers. The thing about retail is that they dont like carrying legacy product - it just doesn't sell. At the store where I run league, there is a supply of Dragon Frontiers and Power Keepers (but not regularily stocked) and it simply does not sell. And those sets are in the Modified format.
Yeah, I see what you're saying with this. Do you think older sets would sell more if they were legal though? I'd probably still buy a few packs of TRR if they were legal. I just don't know if others would do the same...
As being a newer player I am glad I do not have to buy too many cards from older packs and I wouldn't want too even if they were legal.
Pokemon has always been friendly to new players to come into the game without having to worry about getting ambushed by old cards. One reason for a yearly rotating modified format is so that newer players are able to come into this game without having to worry about cards from 2 years ago.
For new players who go to the PreReleases for our DP4 right now, cards from HP-on are probably a worry. I don't think older cards are a big deal in this respect. However, a huge cardpool for new players probably would be daunting. So yeah, that's one advantage to having a smaller cardpool.
It would be daunting and more expensive, chances are people like me would have been gone in a New York minute. In other words I like it the way it is.