The price of "sportives" seems excessive when compared to audaxes and reliability rides which are usually less than £5 and still have feed stops.
Having said that, on the couple of reliability rides I've been on, I've had lots of grief from others about not riding close enough to the rider in front, being too far from the kerb, riding in the "wrong" gear, not pointing out bits of gravel etc. Probably from people like crazy-legs! 🙂
They were pretty unsociable affairs, maybe because my roadie etiquette is no good, but I don't think I'll be going back. I'll stick to riding my road bike with friends and on my own.
Ironically, one of our local road clubs is really friendly and doesn't go in for all the competitive stuff, apart form when they're actually racing.