Yep, the qualification process is the biggest problem - as in we don't have any control over who we send. The FIVB changed it years ago to where you have to travel the world for years, trying to rack up points on the FIVB beach tour. A country's two top ranked teams get in, if they have the minimum points needed to qualify. That was done in large part imho to prop up & give credibility to the FIVB tour, which at the time paled in comparison to the AVP. AND some fundamental rules were changed to favor the bigger players present on the FIVB tour (small court, rally scoring, etc, even the ball plays very differently than before). It's no coincidence imho that since then the AVP has been a shadow of its former self. All that international travel costs a lot of money and time. Unlike the way it was in the 90s, most beach players these days, even the pros, don't have tons of money laying around for that kind of thing, and most of them have real jobs. From what I can tell, the Taylors (Crabb & Sander) didn't even really try to qualify. IMHO that's our best team on the men's side. Or one of those guys + Phil if he were interested.
tl;dr: Fuck the FIVB. We should be able to pick our own representatives based on our own process. We invented the sport ffs.
I suppose USAV could gain some measure of control by helping the top teams with expenses if they have the money (which they should). I have no idea if they do that or not.