I understand the motivation of the 150W limit for class D and E stations. It was, as others have said, to level the playing field with stations actually operating in the field. Whether that rule will be permanent or not, I have no idea. And actually, I don't really care. I'm not out in the field to win a contest. I'm out in the field to keep operating for the entire event, and I really try to avoid using a gas generator. The only thing on site that used the output of the site's generator was the field kitchen. Haven't yet found a 40 cup coffee urn that doesn't need 110VAC to operate. As a side note, if this really was a disaster response, I'd be boiling water on a propane stove and drinking instant coffee.
Field stations often have to restrict their RF power output based on limitations of available off grid power sources. If you're running a decent sized gas powered generator, you could probably run a KW, as long as you had enough fuel on hand. Frankly, I don't have a problem with someone who does that. If you want to haul that kind of weight, then go for it.
As for me, I run my rig on a portable solar power setup, as do most people in our group. In previous years, I had 42Ah of AGM fed with a 100w solar panel. That means I had 21 Ah of usable capacity. In order to make my battery last all night, I operated CW, and turned the output down to 20 watts. Until the sun comes up Sunday morning and gets over the trees to illuminate the panels, you really can't start charging the battery again. Once it does though, the solar panels generate enough power to run the rig, and charge the battery at the same time. Made plenty of contacts doing that. I did use the generator output to run the logging computer, because that AGM battery setup just wasn't big enough to run the rig AND the computer. This year, I upgraded my battery setup to a 50Ah LiFePO4, to provide enough power to run the rig AND my laptop off of the solar setup. That worked great! I was even able to increase my RF output power to 40 watts, and still had capacity to spare. Was able to work everyone I wanted to, pretty much, limited only by my ability to hear through all the on-site QRM.
The problem with Field Day, is that Field Day has evolved over the years to the point that it now legitimately means different things to different people. The reason for that evolution is to encourage participation. Because let's face it, if you tried to convince the majority of hams to participate in a disaster preparedness drill, participation would fall off a cliff. Most hams would not consider that to be fun, and let's face it, ham radio is an avocation, not a vocation. So in order to increase participation, a contest aspect was added to the event. Many more people consider that to be fun, but not everybody. So now it's also a club picnic/cookout and social gathering as well, because everybody likes a good cookout. None of that is wrong, or even incorrect. But at it's core, what Field Day really is, is a disaster preparedness exercise. That's why it encourages operation without permanent structures and commercial power, and why you get bonus points for using alternate power sources. Because in the aftermath of a real disaster, it is likely you would have none of those available. The plus side to all of that, is that many more people get exposed to the methods and techniques of post-disaster operation, by osmosis if nothing else. And the real, underlying goal is to learn to be able to operate completely off-grid for 24 hours, and practice the techniques required.
The reason I love Field Day, is that it combines two of my favorite activities. Camping out overnight, and playing lots of radio. For me it used to be playing radio all night. But as I'm getting older, staying up all night gets harder and harder for me to do every year.
To be perfectly honest, I think the best rule change was to allow home stations to count the points for working other home stations. Because in the aftermath of a real disaster, that's probably where most people would be anyways.
73 de N8AUC
Eric