From the perspective of someone who last raced 'properly' in the days of brushed motors and 'Intellect Bang' nimh and who is considering a (slight) return:
In the labour intensive days of handwound, hand dyno'd motors and carefully matched packs of cells, homologation served as a useful cost cap for high end equipment though (as Jimmy points out) it still didn't ensure any kind of equality between clubman and team driver.
Now we actually have that parity, in as much as we can all enjoy more power 'off the shelf' than we can feasibly use, it appears that homologation is quite the opposite. If you're one of the limited approved range then anyone wanting to do more than club level racing has to come to you. Having a captive market means you can charge more for your rebadged Chinese kit than otherwise identical, non-approved stuff.
It does remind me a little of the racketeering you see in mob movies, but the BRCA will only test the items they're sent. Perhaps there should be more onus on distributors to submit more of their applicable gear, not just the fancy brands with bigger margins?
The requirement for products to be 'commercially available' is sensible, after all the BRCA has a vested interest in protecting UK hobby shops where possible. In this internet age of overseas wholesale operations and their UK warehouses, defining 'commercially available' could get interesting though!
With tens of thousands of club racers and bashers using 'off brand' equipment without issues then the 'safety' argument of homologation is pretty weak. Put it this way, any racing I do in 2013 will likely be at club level only with kit that costs way less than the national driver on the next table, yet with no discernible performance penalty.
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