Excellent post by Geekay. I agreed with every word.
Eddy, we DID have to qualify under the old system, but we were given a time that we had to qualify inside. Even that was not always easy: an odd break down, bad weather, practice cancelled, a red flag situation, baulking, etc. Ironically, that USED to happen, and qualifying was not always a piece of cake.
But guess what?  Those situations still arise, and the riders are meant to be trying to qualify as high up the order as they can.
It's bloody crazy Eddy, and there's no need for it.
Would it have been safer that year I qualified 23rd, and then finished 2nd? How many riders would I have been forcing myself past? OK I accept that I would have been guaranteed a top 20 position, but the same situation is probably happening every year to other riders down the list.
And we haven't even discussed whether the viewing public have a clue what's going on. I for one won't be watching a race with the current system. I like to watch the back markers coming through, maybe they're future stars, achieving the nearly impossible on inferior machinery. There's so  much going on down the order, and that is all lost, in a pathetic attempt to improve safety. But wait a minute. Doesn't racing involve overtaking? Aren't the leading riders going to catch the back markers? Of course! THAT'S the sport we love. Top riders are perfectly capable of overtaking safely, even though it's possible time will be lost. Other riders will possibly lose time too, but the race is almost 2hours long. In car racing, exactly the same situations arise, even with the blue flag. You can win an odd manoeuvre, you can lose an odd manoeuvre. C'est la vie.
So, to summarise, something I've spoken of before, there is no need to have practice week as a secondary race week. There is enough pressure on the riders as it is without this unnecessary burden. If we returned to the old system, riders can get on with sorting themselves out with less worry, and the public (without whom there would be no racing), can enjoy the racing after buying a programme that would be worth the money!