@thomasair You surely have ODoyal (sp?) rolling in his grave for missing this masterful baiting.
In my short time in shooting, and in N50, I fully agree with your premise that the best shooters are the best shooters because they know how to shoot. They will likely be the best shooters across many disciplines and with varying equipment.
However...
Benchrest shooting to my mind is, more than any other competition, focused on the machine. In benchrest, the best shooters are also the best at finding (or smithing) and mastering high quality equipment. Other competition formats allow far greater margin of error specifically due to the human element in each shot. Success in BR is measured in mm. Success in any other format is measured in inches or even feet.
You are an excellent marksman. I'm quite sure you can shoot YOUR RIFLE just as well from a bipod or even bags as from a rest. But how long would it take you to shoot 250 with any rifle on the line? A sincere question; could you pick up any rifle on the line at an N50 comp and shoot 250 with it? If the answer is no, then you must concede that equipment is a contributing factor to success and therefore an advantage.
For me, a new and learning shooter, using a (cheap) front rest and rear bag made the process of learning to be a good shooter easier. (I'm not a good shooter. I'm learning.) Having a steady rest and position for the gun allows me to try free floating the gun. Since I'm not holding the gun, I believe I am eliminating many of the variables which effect a shot. I believe this allows me to learn the gun (tuning, "smithing"), and wind reading, at a significantly higher level of CONSISTENT accuracy. I will fully admit that the rest did not make my gun a better gun, or me a better shooter. But it does make it easier for me to become a better shooter, and easier (if only mild fatigue) even for an advanced shooter like yourself.
I now enjoy a little FT and lots of backyard plinking to learn proper hold and rifle engagement. But on the bench, I do believe that the tools provide a real advantage, equally offered to all participants, of largely removing the shooter from the equation. Electronic triggers illustrate my point. And your musings with Stubbers fall perfectly in line with the spirit of BR.
IMO, the nay sayers, fail to see that the point of BR is essentially to remove the human element and hone the equipment and wind reading for ultimate precision.