Mobile phones - that's interesting. Personally, I'd be happy with a 'no mobiles' rule. No big thing. I would however carry one with me AND use it if I decided the situation required it.
It seems obvious to me that a situation where you'd need to use a mobile would also be one that prevented you completing the audax anyway! Surely, a DNF on your record is trivial compared to getting yourself home safe and sound or, worse still, to hospital!
I could change a gear cable (if I had a spare!), or complete on a single gear/chainring if needed. I was once riding with someone whose rear mech broke - so I removed it, shortened the chain and we completed the ride. But that was our decision. We could have equally made a phone call and got a pick-up. The truth is that we didn't want to hang around waiting. Whether it was a DNF or not was not an issue at that point. Getting the situation resolved was way more important. That's what I mean by anal. Not the rules themselves but the people that loose sight and just HAVE to play by them.
But then I'm not one to keep my completed brevet cards either. They lie around for a bit and then get binned when I have a clean up!
I'm sure there are many riders like me and, generally speaking, I suspect we are all the same in that we greatly appreciate the work put in by organisers. We're really not going to get all hot and bothered by something that, as I say, on the scale of things just does not matter. If it so contravenes a sense of fair play (or whatever) then don't belong - simple really.