Quote from Shotglass :

i suspect that fia is to blame for that rather than the teams

TBH it's the teams/TV that control what the stage and basic car formula is like. The teams want shorter more consistent less demanding stages and have to spend less money on development and more on refining the car, go back 10-20 years ago and in any form of motorsport the emphasis was very much on the next big idea everyone was experimenting and nothing was ever refined like it is today because nothing ever stayed the same for long enough.

For as long as rally exists, there will always be stupid spectators. I marshal at a variety of different rallies on the eastern coast of the U.S. and I've just about seen it all. There is only so much we can do to control a crowd, assuming these people were even within eye shot of a marshal. That's why I prefer doing time controls now, I don't have to deal with airheaded/drunken spectators.

If anyone happened to watch the Rally Argentina television footage, there was a scene that clearly showed two spectators crossing a part of a stage... narrowly avoiding one of the WRC cars. This happened at the famous water crossing section where I'd imagine there are tons of well-trained marshals.