True, but if you don't do your benches, squats, deads ect, it WILL show onstage. IF you do half ass dieting, it WILL show onstage There is no easy way around bodybuilding. Preparation is a part of bodybuilding.
Depends on the bodybuilder. For years, the knock on Vince Taylor was that he trained with "light" weights. But, Taylor looked fantastic at contest time, and (until Coleman broke his record), he was the all-time leader in IFBB pro wins.
The exercises that best stimulate the muscles are the ones that bodybuilders do. While, by and large, it includes the exercises you mentioned, that isn't etched in stone by any means. Plus, the judges don't care if you did bench presses or not to develop your chest. You either have a good chest or you don't.
Said another way, if two guys have equal chest development, one who does the bench press isn't going to get rewarded more than the one who doesn't.
Again, you missed my point. At no time did I state that bodybuilding was easy. What I said was that it is based on APPEARANCE, not performance. They are judged by how they look, NOT what they do. The preparation has no direct bearing on the judges' scoring of the bodybuilders. It's not part of the competition itself. You don't get marked down for not benching; you don't get marked down for eating beef, instead of chicken or whole eggs, instead of egg whites.