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"I think the ACO is wasting time that could be put towards quality GT racing in the FIA WEC by just sitting around, waiting for 2016 to come."
As I understand it, factory participation is one reason for the current GTE-GT3 divide.
Factories are invested in GTE chassis and motors, and were willing to make that investment because they were assured that FIA would keep the field balanced through the rules; i.e. no one make would get any unfair breaks.
Also, since the chassis and motors were expensive to develop, factory teams would have an edge over privateers. This made GTE a sound investment for a manufacturer seeking PR from its racing campaign.
When GT3 became popular most factories had already built GTE cars. GT3 cars were seen as a great way to sell customer cars, but not a great place for factory teams becuase with BoP, a privateer in a Camaro, for instance, might take down the factory teams in their Ferraris and Porsches.
Also, cars from manufacturers like Mercedes or Lamborghini could compete with, and beat, cars built by factories with GTE programs; a GT3 Gallardo that cost half what a GTE Porsche cost might beat a GT3 Porsche.
Factories wanted a rules-bound (as opposed to BoP-balanced) top class where others had to pay a lot to play, to protect their ongoing investments in GTE. In GT3, a latecomer like McLaren could produce a (relatively) low-cost GT3 chassis and beat Ferrari and Porsche, but in GTE, Ferrari and Porsche could maintain primacy because Mclaren (or Lambo or Merc) didn't want to fund a GTE version.
Immediately going all-GT3 would mean that all that GTE money would be wasted; now factories are getting a last couple years to amortize their GTE chassis investments.
Another reason might be because factories cannot dominate in GT3 by building a better car. BoP can make a Camaro equivalent to a Gallardo. GTE set sort of a minimum standard, where a factory had to make a serious investment to build a serious performance car as a base model; no amount of waivers could make a Camaro keep up with a 458.
This ensured that factory (or de facto factory) Porsches would likely only get beat by factory Astons or Ferraris, not by privateer Camaros or whatever, so there would be no prestige lost in losing, nor undue PR advantage gained by a factory making a half-hearted effort.
So, basically, politics.
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