I've been thinking this a lot. At some point ages ago someone mentioned Brown not being with an influential USFSA club and coach - which is true, but the Cricket Club and Orser are a HIGHLY influential group when it comes to international influence.
Ilia is Malinina and Skorniakov's first major student. They have no political power, not having represented the US before. They represented Uzbekistan, which also has no political power. And prior to his death they trained with Igor Ksenofontov, who also had no political power, constantly having his top students moved to Moscow or Leningrad (half of all those Zhuk pairs in the 70s and 80s were originally his pairings. Heck he was part of Marina Klimova's coaching team in juniors).
With no political backing at all, with this complicated a selection criteria, Malinin had no shot. I am glad Raf is set up to take him on next year, I actually trust his coaching.