The End of a Classical World Championship?

Economist and retired (from chess) FM Tyler Cowen thinks that the classical format for the world championship is dying, and will be replaced by something else. "[T]he fundamental problem is that the players are too good and a very well played chess game is a clear draw.... On top of that the match format encourages risk-aversion and openings such as the Petroff for Black. There is too much advance openings preparation."

And yet, Nepo managed to lose four games, and had good winning chances in games 2, 5, and 6. The draw death of top-level chess is always exaggerated: there were plenty of decisive games in the FIDE Grand Swiss, and the World Cup, and the Candidates, for starters. Still, I get where he's coming from. It would be nice to have more spontaneity in the games, and it would also be nice to ban the Marshall, the Petroff, the Berlin, and the Italian Game with d3 for, say, the next 20 years. Here's another idea, meant more seriously than the openings ban: turn the world championship into a biathlon of sorts, with a classical portion and a rapid portion. (The qualifying events would have to have the same format, of course.) The classical portion should be substantive, but the rapid portion should be as well. Given the prevalence of rapid play nowadays, that is a major part of being a top professional, and evaluating who is the champion ought to take that into account.

No doubt there are other possibilities, and - for now, at least - there's little doubt that Carlsen would still be the favorite, maybe an even larger favorite, with the incorporation of a rapid element into the championship. One cautionary note: FIDE already has a rapid world championship, and it's also possible to find sponsors for any match one might like (Cowen is hungry for a Carlsen-Firouzja rapid match). Why kill off one of chess's greatest traditions, especially when 95% of what you want is already available without changing a thing? Traditions should be adaptable, but not eliminated without a very good reason.