@ Nat McIntyre,
First off, running a licence is like and other business.
It's there to run a profitable business for the owners /shareholders, who have put up their own dough to get a licence in the first place.

It's intent is to provide a range of services apart from PI and the ASIC levy that include audits for the advisers and a range of other services like PD days which depending on the numbers come at a cost if you have to fly advisers from interstate.
Putting together PD days even on a quarterly basis requires some planning because responsible Licensee would like to think that their advisers are receiving the kind of relevant information that may or may not enhance their businesses.
Whether or not that happens for you or anyone else in your licence is a judgement call.
If you think this is so easy to manage, why don't you get your own AFS Licence ?