funnily enough for roadbikes this is proven to be better, but the UCI - basically the global regulation body for road cycling - banned it fearing it'd lead to loss of spectators on account of looking like shit. in fact anything downtubeless is out.

To be fair, I agree. Triathlons are not regulated by the UCI and as such triathletes ride something like this aesthetic nightmare:

At least they get pissed on, I guess