@mdkubiak You can't justify it right now. It's a bit more than 10k for a set of unlimited power.
Going to champs (or SCG Con or another sanctioned event) is a dice roll. You're bringing an easily stealable car (and for some players, a house. Roland comes to mind) to a room. I've seriously considered not bringing real power to proxy events because it's insane to take the risk.
Paper vintage feels non-viable as a growing format already. I'm close to to the youngest person at a lot of Vintage events, and I'm going on 30, where 5 years ago, the 'younger players' crew was 25, and I can hardly remember when a new player became a regular--I show up to only a few events, but it's always the same crew.
You simply cannot "graduate" to Vintage (or Legacy, to be 100% honest, though it's a lot easier to borrow decks for that format) without a high paying job--and how many of those people are really going to be active members of the community?