After reading through this thread, it really got me thinking. I'm not extremely knowledgeable about the ins and outs of receiving a bid to Worlds, however, I am familiar with how it works with others sports, such as the USSSA Baseball World Series. It seems that how things are done there could be easily applied to the cheer world, as well.
How well you place at certain competitions earns you a certain amount of points. For example, placing first at a national, state, or super NIT tournament earns you 300 points. (Just a little info for those not familiar with baseball: A Super NIT tournament is equivalent to the larger nationals in cheerleading. Teams from all around the country come to these tournaments.) Placing second at any of those competitions earns you 225 points, placing third earns you 200 points, etc. Lower level tournaments, such as a lower caliber state tournament, earn you fewer points for winning first place. To go to the Elite World Series, you must place first at a Super NIT tournament, which there are only 32 of. The top 32 teams in each age group (which could be changed to divisions to apply to all star cheer) compete.
To edit how this works to accommodate more teams competing at the cheerleading worlds, after the top 32 in each division are decided after all the "NIT-like" competitions are competed, then the next ten teams in each division with the most points are qualified to go to worlds as well. The number of "NIT-like" competitions could be lowered to say 15, and the the next 27 teams with the most points in each division get to go. The top (insert appropriate number here) teams with the most points in each division get the paid bid, the next (insert appropriate number here) get a partial-paid bid, and the rest receive at large bids.
It's obviously not a perfect system, however, it evens out the playing field a little bit, and makes things a little more cut and dry. Of course, the issue would then become classifying tournaments...
But on the topic on which this thread was originally intended, anyone who earns a bid is a world caliber team. Plain and simple. No one should be able to say that so and so doesn't deserve to be there because they did earn a bid, whether you agree with it or not. It's not your place to decide these things. It's the EP's.