That's a good way to look at it, I get that.
I think the same can be said with a lot of things as well. When there is a fee or a certain price point on things, it often times keeps the people out who you wouldn't want there to begin with, which I totally get.
At some point it seems like this would be something I'd like to do. If only my wife and kids were out of town that weekend, I would go to it by myself
I went to a Jeep Jamboree in the coal mining part of PA. There is certainly a good amount of people that you don't want to be wheeling with in that area. The Jeep Jamboree was filled with a bunch of reasonable people which is where I found the most value. While most of them were new JKU owners I found that they were all nice people. And if you pick to do some of the harder trails that JJUSA offers, you won't have to deal with many inexperienced new owners.
The Tilamook one isn't very far from you. In my opinion, that one is probably as good as Ouray. I'm hoping to go to the Tilamook JJ sometime.