I see this as just a way to protect consultants to continue to practise immigration law, but the best way to protect the public is if a lawyer is on the hook.
Why? It's because a lawyer doesn't just go to a community college course and then start hanging out his shingle, right? A lawyer has to invest, and a lot of graduates come out with $200,000 in debt. By the time you're through that system and have invested so much, you're not going to risk it. Your ethics are ingrained in you during the whole law school program.
How does this protect the public? It's because if a lawyer is signing an application form or is the one litigating, they're going to take their role very seriously. They're not going to engage in that kind of fraud or, obviously, the competency issues that we're talking about.