I'm not arguing here, just trying to provide a somewhat "competitive perspective" since during last 20y or so I've seen the same evolution in other discliplines like IPSC. Personally I like to be competitive, but use equipment that is at least remotely practical in real world.
I think you can take that perspective, but the leading edge of innovation at the moment is certain manufacturers like Savage and Anschutz taking the chassis produced by MDT and slapping barreled action in it. More so for PRS, but there's e.g. Savage 110 Precision that weighs 9.5lbs and would fit 12lbs limit in NRL hunter.
Usually open class is driving the innovation, and factory class is productizing it.
It is and it isn't. Take IPSC handgun Production class as example.
In the beginning it was kind of entry level class where you could be competitive w/o reloading, tinkering your gun and so on. Then manufacturers like CZ and Tanfoglio introduced new pistols that were following the letter but not the spirit of Production class. Sponsor money and corruption ruled, and those pistols were admitted to approved list. For many years, Production has been "Standard lite" where you can modify your gun to large extent, and shoot factory ammo (Standard basically mandates reloading your own majos PF ammo, even though some shoot minor either reloads or special factory ammo). Also silly non-practical rules were introduced, like maximum capacity to be loaded in a mag. In part to limit the arms race, and to provide at least another small difference to Standard class.
Another innovation is Laugo Arms Alien, where they started to call non-reciprocating part of pistol "slide", since in some classes you can attach red dot to slide but not the frame. Yes it has some other features but that's the one that caught discussion.
