I am asking this as a coach and an event provider.
Out of the box the pulley rubber that is used to hold the switches are new and tight. A ball rolled onto the lower switch may not cause the switch to clear. A ball launched to the top switches has a very high probability of bouncing off. After being used for some time the pulley rubber stretches and switches are much easier to clear. Teams in their facility will therefore have very easy to clear switches and events that do not use all of their equipment regularly will have either all tight switches or a random combination of loose and tight switches. This will be the case at worlds also.
As an event provider I have seen new fields cause some very low scores because teams are not used to them but I don't want to figure out how to stretch out all these pulleys. As a coach I can't switch out pulleys every week to make sure that teams are getting an accurate indication of robot performance.
What is the force intended to have a switch cleared? Is it meant to be radically different? I know there are field variations but in this one could cause confusion at events and I want to be able to point to a Q&A.