Why does the Watchtower place a harsh burden on it's low-paid and low-skilled army of Witnesses? The District Conventions don't really add much value, you have Witnesses making Minimum wage with both husband and wife working while the Elite Witnesses can afford to burn a ton of cash making the poor Witnesses feel worse about themselves. I remember, some of the really poor Witnesses would bring their own "cooker" to the Motel to make "Top Ramen" and Mac&Cheese" while the Company Men had the Elites take them out for "Surf and Turf" and other great feasts, the poor Witnesses get the shaft was they are told how lucky they are to financially struggle to afford to pay for their hotels.
I remember when I first got married, the only vacations I could afford to take were these shitty Assembly Weekends, starting on late Thursday Afternoon through Sunday. We could not afford to take a decent vacation after wasting the money to attend the mindless Convention that repeated the same materials unless they released a new book changing a core doctrine or giving us some useless brochure to attract people who did not want to join the Cult.
Did the Assemblies cause any financial hardships for you when you were first starting out or did you have it made like the Elites who sat in the Bars at the Hotels and ran a tab of $300 to $500 buying drinks for all the Heavy Hitters? We had a brother run up his tab to impress the Elders in the Circuit who could help put in a good word for him, it worked, he was made a Elder after spending lots of cash on drinks and food!