@James: Thanks for the post. Airing it that way makes sense, and I get what you're saying, and aside from preferences here and there, I don't disagree with anything you're saying. Although I might argue that the majority of Melee players at this point might be current tournament players (conjecture and unimportant), this certainly won't be the case for Smash 4, so there is a potential for change.
For anybody who's not aware, the current rulesets were developed with a good deal of trial and error... the early Melee rulesets actually had items on. The issues occurred (in tournament) fairly frequently, where exploding boxes/capsules/etc would literally fall out of the sky on one person's head, and you couldn't turn boxes/capsules off in the options. The problem occurred that nobody would want to travel/spend time+money for a tournament where one random occurrence would end their run... so the scene would have died.
To James' point, you can minimize this with having more stock, etc... but if you and your opponent are roughly equal and the game decides to bop you only.. you get my point. It leaves a bad taste in the players' (and spectators') mouths.
With Brawl, there actually was the option to turn off all exploding items, eliminating the insta-death threat. But people get stuck once a standard is developed, so the "no items" methodology was adopted from the start. I'll say that it is very likely that the majority of Smash 4 tournaments early on will do the same thing...
But here's where people can actually make a difference. People can argue til they're blue in the fingertips on websites like Smashboards, etc... but the way to make a change is through doing tournaments and having people come and enjoy themselves. In a typical competitive environment, "random" is usually associated with "unfair", but it's possible that isn't the case.
If people are able to have tournaments with items that other people actually consistently attend, then the scene will have to shift. Period. But it's going to be on the people who care to actually make these tournaments happen. The tournament organizer can put whatever ruleset he wants, and people will come if they are interested. I know I would personally attend an items-on tournament anywhere near me. To this point, I am actually planning a tournament in SC for the next few months. This tournament WILL have an items-on event (in addition to a standard-ruleset event). I don't think everybody is opposed to items... but the current competitive players tend to prefer them off. If you want to change minds, show people something different. There's a huge audience for the new games... the time for a change (if one is going to happen) is now.
Essentially I'm saying... you want an items-on tournament? Make one, instead of complaining that the tournament rules don't allow them. You aren't limited by that. (note: this isn't directed at anybody in particular)