I think one major concern is the game itself this year. Since the task (aside from lifting and auton) is so repetitive, there are only a few ways to do it.
Look at last years game. Robots had to lift to 5-6 feet, process posts at different heights, and intake a large, hollow cube (or even 2 or 3 or 4.) Basically, there are a lot of ways to do that. Even in division elimination at worlds last year, cube intakes differed. There were the side tread intakes that looked a lot like tossup intakes (8095A), needle intakes (2915A), and bottom tread intakes (62). And then there were the teams with skyrise claws (2Z) and arms (2915A). And as far as arms go, some teams had vertical arms (62) while others had horizontal arms (everyone else). As for lifts, there were plenty of double reverse four bars (2915A), but also scissor lifts (7682). And I saw a pretty decent number of 8 bars (Hawaiian Kids) and elevator lifts (6007) in middle school. In other words, while some designs may have trumped others, even the best teams had very, very different designs.
This year, the only real tasks are shooting and intaking. Thanks to the magnitude of balls on the field top roller have become the overwhelming majority. And since most teams have 12 motors rather than pneumatics, even innovative intakes like the one on Elevated from 26 have become a small fraction of teams. As for shooters, aside from (brilliant) teams like 974X, most every flywheel iteration is a single one. And while catapults and pinball launchers are theoretically more efficient, they are just not able to keep up with 0.1 seconds per shot (LEER’s single flywheel) because the balls have to settle in the launcher. To be honest, had 62 not pioneered the cam gear mechanism, it may never had caught on. I’m sure slip gears and catapults would have, but even as it is, “flywheel alternatives” make up a very small minority of teams at regional events. And they will continue to get worse as the season progresses since they cannot shoot from up close without a worm gear and a ball adjuster (again, purely the ideas of 62; I haven’t seen anyone else implement both of these together.) The only real alternative I can see is a pinball for full-court and a flywheel for up close (2R and 2Z), but this design is complicated, which means most teams won’t implement it. Personally, I have had trouble getting 1 launcher to work, so I can’t imagine building, tweaking, and maintaining 2!
Then there’s lifting. This aspect of the game has inspired some incredibly brilliant dual use of motors, clever mechanisms, and true innovation. 8900 has used their 5 catapult motors on their lift as well, while some team (I can’t find them) has an unfolding scissor lift. 974X, building off of previous designs, found a purely pneumatic lift that relies on rubber bands rather than motors for torque. 1344B and 2Z have both found 2 motor self-lifters, and of course there are ramps, with varying degrees of cleverness and compatibility. Unfortunately, many teams, even halfway through the season, cannot lift at all! This means that if a team can’t find any good ideas, they are perfectly free to build no lift and still win competitions. For instance, cyber hawks G, with a really good flywheel, drive base, and intake, were able to take the robot skills, programming skills, first seeded team, and tournament champion at the Streets of Bakersfield Extravaganza, all without a lift. Their noted lack of a lift is not a criticism of them in any way; the team that builds the robot that can score the most points wins. And I suppose the extra motors gave them more than a 50 point boost, to such an extent that they decided they could do without a lift.
In other words, I sincerely believe that the convergence we are seeing this early and to this extent is the fault of poor game designing, not poor building or “laziness.” Sorry this post was so long, but I felt I needed a lot of examples to make my point clear.