Typical bloke! Not bothered about annoying me by proving me wrong, but you won so it's okay!

Well, let's face it, for those who ACTUALLY qualify on merit for IS a 5 points for losing R1 isn't even gonna make it into their top 18. So there's very little point handing them out. But if you're gonna award points for qualifying in MS you've got to make it beneficial to accept a WC. Cause you can't possibly give more points to those who don't even make it to the first round. Otherwise no one would ever accept a WC.

And because MS and GS are compulsory I suppose there has to be some sort of points penalisation for not showing. And you can't take points away from them. So giving everyone who does show points, in a way, is a penalty for those who don't.

I bet it's because they're compulsory.

And, while it's not a huge concern. The top players are gonna care about those 5 points when it's the difference between no 1 and not, top 4 seeding and not, getting to Shanghai and not. Making the top 16 seeding or not. And with it so close at most of these areas it will make these differences on a regular basis.