I still fail to understand why we can't have a clean competition without the use of gems.
Gems can make or break a record somewhat more easily and it's somewhat hypocritical to call it "competition" because, when it boils down to it, it's not "true" competition.
It isn't?
For the record, Sonic times are all about who is the best at abusing gems. (on second thought, I wouldn't even know, although it's obvious that's the case)
But maybe no-gem Sonic competition would be kind of .. boring? All things considered. Plus we have Shadow who is basically like Sonic but with no gems... although instead he has chaos snap... and then Silver is all about glitching. So whatever, I dunno.
It sounds like an idea discussed once (no-gem Sonic competition) but I don't remember, I only remember the thing I brought up about if it's ok to use saves in which only a select few of the gems are attained. (in order to save time switching through gems)
Personally I hate gems but my reasons go beyond competition. The fact that they're broken doesn't really matter to me either. (if you can turn Sonic 1/10th his size and jump from the air, who cares if the gem meter is infinite or not, the game is already ruined)