The difference would be that Worldbuilding being something you can nominate/request (or pointedly not request) changes it from bad writing to outright breaking the rules.
Right now a 1k fic that is primarily about the goingson of the ship with Dave and Taylor relegated to the background is within the rules. If worldbuilding becomes something you match on, you have a stronger case to go to the mods and say "this person wrote worldbuilding when I didn't request it" similar to how right now you can say "I asked for Dave and Taylor and this fic only has a one-line mention of Taylor, therefore it doesn't meet the spirit of my two-character request."
From my understanding of the new rules proposed, if someone only requested "Worldbuilding (Spaceshow)" and I wrote them a completely insular fic about Dave and Taylor having a conversation about how they're best friends (or wrote shipfic where they made out for 1k and I tossed in a line about how making out is a fun pastime on the spacestation), that would go against the requested Worldbuilding focus and the recip would be entitled to an EPH. Which should mean the opposite is true: if someone then writes a worldbuilding-heavy fic that neglects the characters, someone who didn't ask for Worldbuilding should be entitled to a fic that focuses on their characters.
If the mods will not be handling the rules in that way then I don't think it's fair. It would be like having a & and / exchange where the mods police what counts as too shippy for a & fic but you can outright turn the / request into a NOTP bashing party and they shrug. If mods won't be enforcing either side then why bother having it at all, may as well leave it to optional details like it's always been.
no subject
Right now a 1k fic that is primarily about the goingson of the ship with Dave and Taylor relegated to the background is within the rules. If worldbuilding becomes something you match on, you have a stronger case to go to the mods and say "this person wrote worldbuilding when I didn't request it" similar to how right now you can say "I asked for Dave and Taylor and this fic only has a one-line mention of Taylor, therefore it doesn't meet the spirit of my two-character request."
From my understanding of the new rules proposed, if someone only requested "Worldbuilding (Spaceshow)" and I wrote them a completely insular fic about Dave and Taylor having a conversation about how they're best friends (or wrote shipfic where they made out for 1k and I tossed in a line about how making out is a fun pastime on the spacestation), that would go against the requested Worldbuilding focus and the recip would be entitled to an EPH. Which should mean the opposite is true: if someone then writes a worldbuilding-heavy fic that neglects the characters, someone who didn't ask for Worldbuilding should be entitled to a fic that focuses on their characters.
If the mods will not be handling the rules in that way then I don't think it's fair. It would be like having a & and / exchange where the mods police what counts as too shippy for a & fic but you can outright turn the / request into a NOTP bashing party and they shrug. If mods won't be enforcing either side then why bother having it at all, may as well leave it to optional details like it's always been.