The decision that was made about the Helper process being changed so dramatically was correct, but as any thing you can imagine on this planet, it has some flaws too.
The problem was, that the requirements were lowered to an extreme level, which lowered the quality of this year's accepted Helpers to a certain point.
Whilst it did open the gates for some members that didn't meet every requirement before like the age requirement which was good, it did let some people to get into the team while they were barely known, simply because they joined the forums very recently, or just didn't post all that much.
My guess is, that they decided to ,,close" the applications from potential applicants which are from those countries, simply because they had enough staff members from there.
The other option they probably had in their minds was to higher up the requirements for them, but it would be simply unfair and ridiculous.
The other major flaw is the time it takes to get your application to a higher stage, as far as I have heard.
Waiting several months is absolutely insane, but on the other hand the Sr moderator team is extremely small for the hundreds of applications they've got to deal with every week or so, plus they must have to deal with quite a large number of better applicants, by discussing them and etc, which logically should take time, as there are many, if we judge people by the newer standards.
I think, that cycles should come and go every two months or so, just so no one will have to wait months in order to receive their final reply.
It is a very controversial topic and none of us really can give a accurate opinion, since we can't know what happens behind the scenes, and most importantly-we don't know HOW MUCH work there is that has to be done.