This is probably due to two different referees creating the tracks. Play the one that suits you the most, or play both and get ESI and the WR for both, double the fun.

Definitely a different generation of referee. TG has gone through different aims in the past. The early years had aims of "iron man" achievements with stitching scores from multiple games, etc. The early 2000s was of "easiest settings" for largest inclusion yet the Vs. Fighters of early 2000s were the opposite with "hardest settings". Early-mid 2000s was of aims at limiting game play to methods that might be best suited to live competitions (limited lives) and not marathons & you'll see far more verbose rules in the 8-bit & 16-bit rules for this aim - also the era of identifying and explicitly banning lots of tactics (& bye-bye speed-runners). Mid-late 2000s slackened off with "however people want to play" & refs would take input from gamers - too many games were massive by then and TG had long fallen behind the curve of supporting the latest games, so getting light weight rules up onto the scoreboard ready for submission was better than a block because a ref hadn't got the time or money to buy & test.