I agree with you, in fact past experience has proven that this is a real problem. To me, this selection process is why the 2015 Worlds in Kazan was an "off year" for US swimming while in 2016 Rio and 2017 Budapest the team staged a "miraculous" recovery. The 2015 Kazan team simply didn't have the best swimmers from the US (the team was frankly a combination of unmotivated vets focused on Rio and untested newbies), a problem that was quickly rectified in the 2016 Trials. Unsurprisingly 2017 Budapest continued the momentum as the selection had both proven Olympians and peaking newbies. This was exactly my point earlier in this thread: we're lucky that the athletes that I see as having the most potential made the team this time around. I think not only '18 Pan Pacs are looking good, also '19 Worlds are looking good.

I think this is precisely the point of the selection criteria. The idea was to increase the pressure on nationals in a non-Games, non-Worlds year. Without that pressure, these off-off-cycle years would be a total lull for elite swimmers. As a result of the selection criteria, there's actually a lot on the line at this meet and the swimming is probably better. In the previous cycles, swimmers like Grevers (in 2014) and Cordes (this year) didn't properly prepare, missed the team and it caused them real problems. I have limited sympathy for pro swimmers who simply didn't put in the work or didn't taper: the selection criteria are clear, everyone knows the importance. Even Dressel admitted that they had "underestimated the competition", to me that's unacceptable. This meet is a big deal, show up ready to race.

As I said, I think this year we dodged the bullet, most of the "right" people are on the team.