SKIP TO THE BOTTOM UNLESS YOU FEEL LIKE READING MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS
I'm sorry, but there's a note of dedication for scores/rings that may be ignored in times...
Not only that, but Moral boosts abound for getting top rings in any game. Granted, it's doable by all, without TOO much effort, but still...
All effort in the game should be rewarded equally. If you're not willing to RA/SA the game to take a championship (Judgement, I'm looking at you) then you don't deserve said championship. Even if it's boring and repetitive, so are a LOT of TAs. GH1, for example, is just waiting the BILLION tries it takes to get it right... you're always just a few frames off, and doing the same thing over and over...
Rings aside, let's talk about SAing.
DISCLAIMER: All I know of SAing the 3D games comes from conversations with other people and from watching videos. As such, I hope I offend no one.
SAing S2K and S3K is mostly collecting all the rings, destroying all the enemies (with highest chain possible), and, where feasible, doing so quickly enough to net that extra bunch of points at the end of the level. S1, along with the 3D games, can be said to be heavily based on speeding through a level at top speed, killing as much crap and nabbing as many rings as you can in a mad dash for the finish line.
S2K and S3K require patience and concentration to get all the rings/scores, while the others take a great deal of route planning and the like. SAdva requires much practice at spamming, and while personally, I think it's bizarre, you'd have to look at HTK to say much about it.
Since TAing requires much more dedication, in many cases, than RA/SAing, then what's the problem with asking you time-holding superstars to complete the RA/SA goals? (eg. after you spent 6 hours trying to net that elusive :24, what's another 30 minutes to get the 225 rings in that level?)
It's a show of dedication to all aspects of the game, and as such, should be left in as they are (or perhaps halved, because rings/scores nearly correlate, and as such, should not be worth 2/3 (theory) of the point totals, because while, to me, it's worth more than times (because times are repetitive), I know many don't feel this way, and I pride myself on my fairness to my fellow gamers)
HERE'S THE JIST:
If you take them down, I'll stop competing all together, and while I'd prefer them to stay where they are, I think that if they are halved, while I'll drop tons and tons in the rankings, I would only drive that much harder on RA/SA to perfect any game I pick up since fewer people will be working on such things...