Lets call this what it is. Its busy work.
Its now 7,500 hours spent to get one new member (gross), while 35-40% of the baptismal number each year die, leave, or are disfellowshipped (no longer counted as publishers)
So this is an hours booster. Anyone can do it. Service is now easy! Hand a tract. Sit by a cart. Seriously.....pretty much nothing to do. Since only 5% or so of JW's can explain their beliefs, making things hard for everyone isn't going to make that go up. So let them do the heavy lifting, and the rest of the slugs get the tract and cart work.
Lets be honest....do they really want new people showing up to THIS convention? I doubt it.