A recent statement from Andreas Niedring, when discussing Roth, and I couldn’t agree more.
“Although the race is not an official Ironman any more, not much has changed for me as an athlete. I really do feel that age-group athletes are taken better care of here, there is no longer an assumption that you will have to pay more for everything because it has the Ironman label on it. To me, the Ironman label often means that age-group athletes are just ripped off. Of course, it is great to be in Hawaii for the race there, but I think that not enough attention is paid to the athletes because of the over-commercialisation."
Having done thirtheen ironman races, with two without the m-dot, I have found m-dot races to be more expensive, overhyped, and not necessarily better.