> getting to change the rules so that your IPO gets included before the general market can discern your value because of your connections to the benchmarks is cheating.

I disagree with you because you are vastly exaggerating the scope and effects of the proposed rule change. S&P was going to decrease their minimum index inclusion time from 12 months to 6 months. 6 months is far more than enough time for the market to decide a fair price of an equity. The rule change never ended up happening, hence this post.

There is zero "cheating", I don't understand why you keep harping on that.