It must be the end of the year and people want to get 'things' off their chests.
I thing a tournament scene for D&D RPG is a very, very bad thing! While it might generate some interest, it wouldn't be the interest we would want to have in a RPG. While MtG is a very 'if => then' and 'yes => no' game, D&D isn't because there are other factors beyond the rules that make the game (roleplaying for one). It would be like having a tournament for playing cowboys and indians. A RPG isn't a competative game, but a cooperative game, your success is dependant on your fellow players and the DM, if one has a bad day that will influence your success.
I've played in a AD&D 2e 'tournament' once, but that wasn't really a competition, more an experiment. One that was a lot of fun and highly successful, but the only reason it was fun was because it was with fun people who weren't really there to win anything. And winning involved a very small price, and not $50,000 in cash. Your success was not only rated in how far along you came in reaching your goal, but it also involved fellow players (and DMs) 'grading' you on things like roleplaying and 'having fun'.
While i agree that a feat that gives you a +8 damage on all atacks is not even funny in my games, who's to say that it's wrong? You sound like the kid that cried "But that's impossible, real indians can't do that!", while i'm the kid that says "Who's saying that i'm a real indian? Your certainly not a real cowboy...".
Certain rules modifications might seem wrong in your eyes, but it really depends on in what kind of game your playing. We, for example, are currently playing as strictly multiclass (following two unrelated classes equally), no prestige classes, we're all half-elf, predifined hitpoints, predifined ability points, and very low grade magical items (we can't really buy or sell permanent magical items). We currently feature a fighter4/thief3, a cleric4/wizard3, a ranger4/sorcerror3, and a bard4/ranger3 (that's me), we're all 7th level and for the life of us we have trouble with monsters that have a CR that's equall to our own. We've even created a 'vocation' system gives you an ability (in strength equal to a decent feat) and gives you a penalty that also needs to be rules based, you can change your 'vocation' between levels but there has to be a good roleplaying reason.
Would these 'freeform' like rules work in a rpg product? No, but my fellow players seem to enjoy themselves (i haven't taken a 'vocation', i find it not neccessary)...