Look around. POP has just ended its first year taking over from WOTC, and they've already held more Premier level events than WOTC ran in the previous 3 years combined. The prize support for the first year was incredible, and, while it has dropped somewhat for the individual players in terms of POP supported prizes, check with your local TO for updates on what their prize structure is going to be: I can pretty much guarantee you that their prize structure will benefit the winners even slightly. Also, for the next OP year, all Constructed Premier-level tournaments are FREE OF CHARGE, with prizes being cut in half. Again, check with your local TO for details about prize structure: I know of at least one CC that will be using last year's prize structure, many others are sure to increase prize support because of this. About the Limited rating not counting for anything, there are rumors floating around that this year the invites for Worlds will be based off Overall rankings, rather than Modified rankings as they were last year.
WOTC completely shut out their largest age group, the 15+, under the false pretense that Japan wanted the game to be targeted at younger kids. Based on the reinstitution of the 15+ under PUI, that's a bunch of bull. What they were really trying to do was push the 15+ into their much more popular and profitable Magic: The Gathering game. Because PUI has no other TCGs to speak of, they've put everything they've got behind this one game, and it has begun to pay dividends. Worlds was attended by quite literally thousands, even though only about 150 had been invited to participate in the main event. Many of those who attended spent their time at the many side events offered at Worlds, including, but not limited to, Drafts, Sealed decks, Modified, Mutant, and Unlimited. Also, the Japanese artists paid a visit to the United States for the first time ever (that I know of), and we finally got a chance to meet them and get our cards signed by their creators. I think that even the great Ken Sujimori, the creator of Pokemon, was there signing and generally hanging out with everyone. WOTC had a single Worlds competition in 4 years of running the thing, and it was a very lame competition in comparison to PUI's Worlds. The Professor Championships, which was a pathetic program to begin with, were held after hours and with no press support. The overall attendance barely reached 500, and none of the top Japanese or overseas players were even invited to participate.