Well....everyone wants stuff they want to be less expensive. I do too. I think it's worth talking about that.
First, some of the cost you list have nothing to do with competition. Continuuing education is not a technically competition cost. Low cost competitions would no reduce the cost of lessons or tapes. People who save money on the competitions might just take the difference and spend it on lessons, books, disks, web subscriptions, clothes and so on. So low cost competitions aren't going to "solve" those costs.
So now on to the part that is related to the cost of actual competitive events. For non-profit contests to happen, a motivated person has to go out an mobilize a volunteer crew to organize an event. The crew will need to find a venue (high school gym? YMCA gym?) They'll need to find adjudicators to judge either for free or pay. (I'm guessing the vast majority of adjudicators will want some pay for the effort of hanging around all day applying rules.) They'll need to figure out how to handle the presumably small but necessary entry fees-- so someone needs to be treasurer of the club. They'll need to make sure they pay any licenses for music that's played at the event. They'll probably need to rent sound equipment and so on.
These (presumably unpaid) organizers will also need to decide on things like rules for dress, allowable school figures (DVIDA syllabus? Arthur Murry? Their own club syllabus? ) and so on. They need to create documents to explain their rules. Someone at the contest will need to enforce these rules. They will get both applause and criticism for any choices.
All of this will involve work by someone. Some is such boring work that you will definitely need to pay at least some of the people. (Janitor sweeping floors and clearing tables? Setting up tables for the adjudicators?) As there are obvious expenses to the organizer, there is a risk the organizer will be out of pocket money if the event doesn't get enough (low priced) entries.
I'd love it if there was an event on Saturday evenings every two months in a local high school gym near me. There are several nearby studios. Maybe it would attract competitors from a 30 mile radius. Maybe the nearly free competitions taking place in the local gym judged by unpaid adjudicators will attract people from all across the nation. Or maybe not!
I'm certainly not going to go to the effort to organize these Saturday evening events. (I hate organizing stuff in general.) I don't that that sort of thing for pay and I'm certainly not going to do it for free.
As for the idea that others should do it for free or very low cost to me: I charge people for my tutoring services (AP physics mostly). This is an expensive extra cost some parents think is worth it. Others don't. Lots of people probably think it would be "great" if tutoring was available for free for everyone. But if I do it for free, I can't pay for my dance lessons. So if I was forced to do it at low costs, I'd stop doing it and go get a different sort of job that pays more. (Coding? Sizing HVAC systems?) In that case, people who do want to pay for tutoring will find the supply diminished.
I'd be a bit hypocritical if I thought I should get paid but adjudicators, dance instructors, hotels, and so on are somehow supposed to do their work for free. If they can't earn a living by charging for various things associated with competitive dance, they will also need to find a different profession. Then we'll have fewer dance events. Even those will money will be unable to dance competitively.
So organizers need to find a source of funds to pay for these things. ( Maybe they could get the park district to pay? I really doubt it. The park district doesn't want to lose money either. )
I'm pretty sure all the above explains why the competition events that exist cost a fair amount of money. Even the lowest cost ones cost money. In my region (near chicago) there are fewer of the less expensive events than the more expensive events. (I'm going to Windy City Open tomorrow.)
The main people who are going to organize events like this are people who make a living teaching or competing in dance. They take on a risk of losing money if things go wrong but hope they can make more if things go right. So it's not fair to suggest they must do it in a "non profit" way.
Having said that, if someone does want to organize these things in a non-profit way, providing them at lost cost, that would be great. You or anyone here who would like these to exist could give it a go if you really want these to become a reality. I bet you'd find it so time consuming you'd no longer have time to take dance lessons and do your normal job!
