I respectfully disgree whole-heartedly with this way of thinking.
Winning Natls has absolutely NOTHING to do with your "body of work."
You misunderstood my post. I was referring to the selection of World/Olympic teams when I mentioned taking into a consideration a skater's recent competitive history. In no way was I saying to judge Nationals based on past performances...That would be silly. The purpose of the National Championships is to crown a National Champion and to give every skater a national ranking. This domestic event in not the SOLE indicator of which skaters could do the best on the international stage at Worlds/Olympics... There is no better way to determine which of your skaters are capable of scoring the best internationally than to watch them on the Grand Prix, at Worlds, Four Continents, etc.
In fact, by making Nationals the SOLE criteria in selecting a World team, it increases the possibilities of the judges needing to "hold up" a skater that BELONGS at Worlds, but may have just bombed at Nationals. If Lysacek had skated poorly at last season's Nationals, you could bet the judges would have been in panic mode trying to keep him in the top 3. There's no reason to put the judges in this position. Let the judges score Nationals based on what happens that day and allow a skater's international competitive history to be considered in selecting teams.