1)
Restricted car classes: Yes, I'll try to implement the possibility to create custom cars (by applying restrictions on the existing cars). Ideally these should be then handled by their custom name just like they were proper LFS cars. That means separate stats being stored, possibility to use them in !pb and !sb listings etc...
2)
Licences and ranks: Yes, true, as you say the licences based purely on lap times in certain track/car combos have limited use for you. But I know other servers where this is exactly what they need. Three servers running the same combo, server 3 is open, but to drive on server 2 or server 1 you need certain lap time stored in Airio stats, and that is the required licence level.
I intend to implement a framework allowing the points to be used in much the same way as lap times. I started with lap times (aka licences) because it was a bit easier and better for testing the general principles. With points (aka ranks) there comes one more variable factor and that is what points are used - total, track, car, or track/car? I can imagine scenarios when all these might be required and I'd like to support those.
So, the rank (points) based system very similar to licence (time) based system is coming. It will be just as flexible, with full customization supported. The current rank system (we're talking here about FULL version only) will be updated/modified for the more flexible framework.
I think there'll be the standard (customizable) sanctions for trying to join a server with insufficient licence or rank - 2 spectates, then kick, all with accompanying explaining messages. 5 kicks = short ban, 12 hours, the lowest possible in LFS.
3)
Configs: I'm not sure what makes you berserk? The files have been merged, items are grouped, every item is explained. All new keys are mentioned in changelog so that you may just copy them from default config files into your current ones, update (unless you missed last like 5 to 10 versions) is a matter of 3 to 5 minutes.
I realize some items (especially in the track/car section of the CFG file) are more complicated to set up properly because of the inter-dependencies, but that is a price for the very flexible setup options you get. If anyone runs into some troubles, I'm always around to explain how things work. But surely specifying special settings for tracks and cars requires some thinking, it is relatively easy to make an error resulting with unexpected behavior.