Here's the thing - none of our newer link lists are ever going to be a |ink-0-rama or a D_a n g e rD a ve. We'll never have that much SE traffic or any other kind of traffic for that matter. There's no hope what-so-ever for us to ever obtain that level of success. It's sad, but true.
The submitters who submit to our lists do so, not for a huge bucket o' hits, but to increase their over SE presence. We, as little link list owning assholes, have no reason to not shadow the rules of the big/old dudes. The GOOD submitters are already building to suit the big guys anyway.
Demand quality from the start and build a reputation for listing good sites. It's better for free site subitters if we all follow the same basic policies anyway.
That doesn't mean you can't bend or break rules along the way so you can list sites or pages that you see potential SE benefit from. There are a handful people out there that build special SE free sites that don't come close to meeting our listed specs, but they are still surfer friendly and can only help our niche pages build PR and gain vital SE traffic. I'd list those any day. (Just don't tell anyone
)