I don't think we disagree with each other, just talking about two different things.
My bad if I didn't communicate clearly what I mean by first come first serve, I'm just talking about the general principle for a civilized/fairer system that people not easily skip the line. We all understand what's the drawback to have people stand in a line overnight or the current lottery system, what I'm saying is with all those drawbacks in mind, the general handling principle should still hold by "first come first serve", no matter what the actual implementation would be, and with its own drawbacks.
I have no idea what this 'general handling principle' means in the context of what kind of program there should be. That seemed to be what you were proposing.
But ok, we're on same page a general and actual first come first served won't work. Probably not worth exploring the general principle - ok, no line jumping.
I would personally like to vote for a dramatic raise in the income cutoff to filter out my potentitial competitors, but how many other taxpayers would vote for my preference? Eventually, probably a majority opinion is to make PGP eligible for more, or even terminate the program if we including the entire taxpayers body.
Yep, that's the fundamental issue. Everyone will have their own critiques.
I see a lot of complaints, for example, about the 'apply just in case' (eg if not sure / not meeting income requirements in hopes it'll work out). I don't see that as much of an issue, actually. Government has a pretty good idea that some percentage of those that express interest won't go to completion (some are no longer interested, some have some documentation or other issues, some sponsors didn't remain in Canada, and yes, some arent' actually eligible), and I'd bet they estimate those numbers fairly accurately. In other words, those dropping out don't actually much impact anything at all - it was planned in advance. It seems to drive some here mad that somebody not eligible 'took' their hypothetical spot, but net-net, really no impact: they 'drew' 5000 names expecting half to drop out or not even respond. If they were much stricter with up-front fees or whatever, they'd just be drawing 3000 names expecting a lower portion to drop out. Not worth the effort.
Anyway, you've well understood the point. Any change that's fully money-based will be criticized, any change that ignores money has to have some other selection method (like a lottery).
As above, my suggestion would be a combination of money and more reliance on supervisas / residency requirements. A big waste in many cases where PRs want to get their parents here as PRs and ... seems many of the parents don't really want to live here permanently, they want to visit their grandkids for longer periods of time.
I should duck out of this dispute though - not a situation that concerns me except as a citizen. Our senior family members abroad - well, doesn't apply to them, let's leave it at that.