Let's just go around in circles, shall we?

> I was flamed that ARIN needed network engineers for some unknown
> purpose.

I don't recall anybody (except you) saying that the engineers were needed
for an unknown purpose. 

> I took it that those engineers ($60K/year and up base salary, or about
> $200K/year fully burdened) were to make sure that the address issued
> would "follow the rules" such that it could be routed -- assuming that
> the address block being allocated was intended for global publication. 

NO.  The need to check that the addressing plan makes sense, and that
there is not much wastage of address space.  For example, some
organisations might apply for a /20 where they could have fitted all their
requirements into a /23 by more sensible subnetting.  The registry should
find such cases and either refuse the applications or allocate the smaller
block. 

--apb (Alan Barrett)