I am pretty far removed from the upper echelons of elite skiing and the inner workings of the organization. But from my perspective, the most important thing the organization provides is objective safety standards, training and oversight on these standards, in conjunction with a path to semi-affordable event/club insurance. Without these basic things, the sport would be nearly impossible to underwrite without paying through the nose through something like Loydds of London. In this modern world, there would be no such thing as organized 3-event waterskiing without semi-affordable insurance. I think when proposals on how to "fix the sport" so to speak are thrown out you can't lose site if this core function.
So, can affordable club insurance be obtained without participating in safe sport? I don't know the answer, but if the answer is no, there's no point in complaining about it. It's not realistic to think you can organize large sporting events without affordable liability insurance.