Genghis,
I agree with your input and add that the US system depends on the signature of the MIDO (Manufacturing Inspection District Office) inspector who is assigned to you. He is empowered with the ability to approve or not, and his guidelines are nearly nil, so it is really based on whim. Furthermore, he is personally responsible with the outcome of his decision, so that there is little incentive to approve, and lots of reason why a career civil servant would say NO.
The crash of an F-86 into an ice cream parlor a few decades back propelled a major reduction in restricted certificates, and those spectacular crashes of the water bombers last year did not help.