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Heavily specialized guns are the natural result of any competition.
When the sport first starts up, people are using "regular joe" guns, simply becuase that is what people most have. As you shoot the sport, certain modifications will sooner or later, allow you to shoot, or compete, at a higher level. Initially, these modifications tend not to be really outrageous, (free floated ARs, mag wells on 1911s) but unless divisions exsist for "stock" pistols, people will tend to modifiy their guns to any extreme if it helps their shooting. I think that it is less an attempt to beat out the competition as it is an effort to make the match easier to shoot.
What makes this effect more pronouced is that most guns will work for general duty as is. But the less generalized the sport is, the more specialized a gun you get away with. Take silhouette shooting or Olympic bullseye. Slowfire offhand shooting will be easiest with a gun that won't work well for Bianchi cup. However, a USPSA Open gun ought to be competetive in several types of centerfire pistol matches.
I don't think this is a bad thing. Competetive shooting has brought many advances in gun design, reloading, and shooting techniques. As long as you've got stock classes to balance out the people who really want to get crazy (nothing wrong with that!) I see competitve shooting as a real advantage to realistic guns and shooting.
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