I assume you're trolling because this is insane, but I'll provide a honest counterpoint anyways.
I could not possibly be more serious. Why assume someone is trolling just because they have a view different than your own?
You gotta limit it somehow and you can do that by performance via qualifying standards or random chance via lotteries.
I don't know that you do have to limit it. Just run more heats. Make it a weekend long or even week long event if necessary.
If you do limit, no reason it should be by any means that doesn't allow all to have a (presumably) equal chance, such as a lottery.
A BQ is challenging certainly but it's widely attainable by most able bodied people given enough work, sure the level of work is different depending on natural talent but it's insanely straightforward compared to the complicated lotteries.
There a many runners who cannot possibly run fast enough no matter their training.
I have a runner friend who is more serious than I am by far, and I run as many miles as my schedule allows much of the time. She runs 50 miles per week in a low week, usually around 60 miles per week but has done up to 100 in a week before. Yet she is not fast enough to BQ, and it isn't close. She doesn't really care because for her it's about enjoying running and racing, but she does joke that she'd need to use her personal best 5k race time, take that pace, and pretend she ran it for a whole marathon to BQ.
Now some might claim she doesn't train right or whatever, but the fact is the standards at Boston are simply unattainable for many runners who DO work hard. She is but one example.
Run a lot, run the time, you're in. Thats more fair to me that the black box of multi-tiered lotteries, qualifying standards that don't actually qualify you, and weird loopholes that comprise qualifying some other majors like NYC and London because the athlete can substantially increase their odds of a BQ through cheap and simple means.
It's just not as simple for many as you make it out to be.
The BQ itself also has provided an awesome challenge that is near universally understood among serious rec runners in in the US so it extends beyond just participating in Boston. A BQ is a huge goal for a lot of folks who have no intent of ever running Boston itself, but just love to rally around a common and pretty damn equitable challenge with their fellow rec runners.
Ah, the elitist rec runner groups. Reminds me of when I went to a race where I was running the half, but the full was the big draw. About 200 participants in the half and 400 or so in the full. My spouse went with me to the packet pick up. We overheard a number of conversations about BQs and speed and wins and prizes. Several had a discussion about how it wasn't even racing if you couldn't break a certain time. These were clearly not casual recreational runners who run with me or at local races. Afterward, my spouse commented that they'd never seen so many self entitled people who think they are better than others in one area like that, and I agree.
Nothing wrong with goals or achieving them, but if all you can talk about is how fast you are and such, yeah, not people I want to hang around.
It has a unique positive impact in running culture in the US that no other race comes close to -because of these qualifying standards. In this way it has created a reward of running available to literally everyone. I'd say we could use more exciting arbitrary challenges for rec runners to chase.
Except it's NOT available to everyone, which is my point.
Finally, for any of us that don't want to bother with hard work or weird lotteries there are literally 1000s of fantastic marathons all over the country with no standards, pretty cheap entry fees, and great experiences to be had. Its not like the BAA is some 80s movie villain that goes around canceling other marathons.
Yes, there are.
Yet the only thing necessary for evil to thrive is for good people to say and do nothing. I, for one, will, at a minimum, say something and do what I can.