Classes Table Discussion

Without making any comment about the standard of those two classes, as a general point of discussion, is the closeness of the fleet necessarily a particularly good indication of the standard of the class?  A couple of the classes I sail are sometimes dominated by one or two sailors, but they are current Olympians (as distinct from the ex-Olympians who a regulars in these classes). Not surprisingly, world champs in full pre-Olympic training normally go pretty well, and dominate results. If the current Olympians aren't racing, the fleets are closer together - but the standard is actually lower. Surely similar things can occur in other classes? 

A classic case was in the Laser nats down here recently - one year, the winner drops a first to take a perfect score and win by 20 points.  The next year the winner wins only 25% of the races and there's so much match racing that the top 2 sailors lodge 7 protests in one race. Both events have similar fleet numbers and about a dozen internationals. The same guy was second both times.

The first year was clearly a walkover, but it was performed by the ISAF sailor of the year, ranked #1 in the world. The next year he didn't turn up and the event went to the guy ranked #39 in the world. So the one with the closer racing clearly had a lower standard of competition.

I've also noticed that in motorsport, lower categories often have closer scores than (say) F1 or MotoGP, because the once-in-a-generation geniuses like Schumacher end up at racing in the premiere class. It's just standard bell curve stuff.

Please let me make it clear I'm not making a point about any class, just musing about a subject that interests me.