I would not get too frustrated. The available equipment is coming out so fast, I doubt anyone has time to review them all in detail. As someone said, it is difficult to enforce anyway, with all of the easy to access portable AHRS solutions available. LxNav had a contest mode that disabled the AHRS for 14 days last year, but they have gone to a much more simple solution whereby they just add a flag in the igc file that the CD can check if he suspects someone used AHRS. Of course, that doesn't help if the contestant used another portable AHRS solution or submits a file from a backup recorder.. It should be easy to see who might be cloud flying based on the altitude achieved compared to cloud base and whether the climb rates increase or decrease near the top of the climb.

I highly recommend the LxNav system.

Regarding contest entries and class. I highly recommend you go to a contest as crew or spectator and talk to the pilots. There are many out there that love to help new pilots. I did my first contest last summer and have had more that two dozen pilots offer to help me on a regular basis before, during, and after a contest. Many of the regions hold informal weekend contest too, which is a great way to get started.