As usual, you are spot on. The whole notion of legislating behavior within the SCA when "policy" or Custom will suffice usually turns out badly--and in my experience ends up either invoking the Law of Unintended Consequences or it simply gets ignored / abandoned as too cumbersome to administer anyway.

What is more troubling to me is when Law is used as a lever to shuffle the importance of various offices in order to increase individuals' profiles and lend a little weight to their SCA CV, or to alternatively deal with an individual's "issues" rather than confronting them directly. Padding resumés by legistlation and gerrymandering someone to irrelevance. And yes, I've seen both happen.