I am not going to this tourney but just a few observations.
$20 is nothing.... get over it.
Changing the tourney rules beforehand does suck but they have averted a major screw up.
Less entries available does benefit the lesser skilled players, so you might see some fairly random results from this format.
My only suggestion would be to have fewer games count towards your total score. 20 entries on 10 games is pretty brutal.
Keeping 12 games available keeps the lines moving, but with only 20 attempts it would be much better if only your best 7-8 games counted.

Yes! Having the ability to self cue at LAX was awesome! I could get in a 7 deep cue for GOT, and go get food or go play games on the floor, then just check my phone every so often to know when I needed to be back in the tourney area. It was great!

I'm also a little confused by only taking 16 players. LAX had 132 players, of which probably about 90 were actual competitors and they took 24 plus another 16 in B division. I did read about finals being on Saturday instead of Sunday. So why the self-imposed time constraints?

Aside from the players you already mentioned, watch out for Kevin Stone, Grant Mortenson, Steve Marsh, Shawn Lee, Ron Hallett Jr., Jason Mawson, Robert Byers.

Of course it depends on the tourney and the score keeper. Usually what happens is they turn around after entering a score and if the next player is not standing there ready to go, they will call their name 2 or 3 times, then skip ahead in the queue. They typically will not wait more than about 30-60 seconds.