With https://www.vexforum.com/t/zip-ties-rubber-bands-and-pneumatic-tubing-rant/96330 people perplexed about the GDC’s ruling on pneumatic tubing last season, Grant Cox has decided to give a definitive answer at this season’s EP Summit. His response can be found in the video below:
smc sells different colors on their website, but I guess the color black is the only one that is safe and levels the playing field 
Yeah… this does not seem like a rational/valid reason for the GDC’s decision.
Plus, what happened at Vex Worlds was, from my observation, mostly due to Vex being unable to supply their “safest pneumatics” to everyone. They made pneumatics highly vital, and were unable to serve those “level playing field parts” to everyone who wanted to take advantage of it. If they had supplied the pneumatics (which my team has not received as of a year later), then perhaps the outcome at worlds would have been better.