Bench shirts have gotten crazy stupid, but it is the way the sport has went. Everyone on here needs to realize that geared lifters really don't give two shits what all of you think. It is a tool to bench more weight end of story!!! How is it any different then a high jumper doing a pole vault and using a pole to go higher over the bar. Same concept get as high as possible over the bar. What was the Pole Vault record 30 yrs ago as opposed to now? 
Its the same thing here with bench shirts, same concept just one uses an assistance tool to move more weight. Trust me I've done both movements and have competed at World level in both Raw and shirted it really is two different training types, you don't just put on a shirt and bench 300 more pounds you have to learn the shirt the groove and how to touch in it.
I myself have now decided to go the route of Raw benching and love it!!!!
WR record now raw is 720 
WR record now in a shirt is 1100 yeah they have gotten stupid but again they dont give two shits what you, me or anyone else thinks 
 
 
  You choose a strange example. 
5.94 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Rome, Italy August 31, 1984[1] 4 
6.00 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Paris, France July 13, 1985[1] 5 
6.01 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Moscow, Soviet Union June 8, 1986[1] 6 
6.03 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Prague, Czechoslovakia June 23, 1987[1] 7 
6.05 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Bratislava, Czechoslovakia June 9, 1988[1] 8 
6.06 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Nice, France July 10, 1988[1] 9 
6.07 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Shizuoka, Japan May 6, 1991[1] 10 
6.08 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Moscow, Soviet Union June 9, 1991[1] 11 
6.09 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Formia, Italy July 8, 1991[1] 12 
6.10 m Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union Malmö, Sweden August 5, 1991[1] 13 
6.11 m Sergey Bubka  Ukraine Dijon, France June 13, 1992[1] 14 
6.12 m Sergey Bubka  Ukraine Padua, Italy August 30, 1992[1] 15 
6.13 m Sergey Bubka  Ukraine Tokyo, Japan September 19, 1992[1] 16 
6.14 m A[3] Sergey Bubka  Ukraine Sestriere, 
The same man has held the world record for the past 30 years. The record has gone from 5.90 meters to 6.14 meters in those 30 years. That's a 9 inch improvement. Nine inches in 30 years.