I get being disappointed. I'd be disappointed too. But if you can't get over a canceled swim, what the hell you gonna do when your stomach shuts down 4 miles into the run. Or you get 3 flats and only had two tubes.

And the people complaining here at least appear to be fairly highly experienced racers, lamenting the watering down of what used to apparently give them some identity. They're not saying they're disappointed, they're calling out RDs for making Ironman too easy. And here it's documented the port was closed for a couple hours as the race started. That call is made by the harbormaster and is always a risk in Coz in November (they even have a name for the condition). No boats... no race... no matter if you are a :50 or 2:00 swimmer. Nothing to do with catering to a specific athlete.

I mean look above. Once the "hardest one day" event? Hardly