The important thing is to get all 6 teams entered by the final deadline. If that happens, then no penalty points should occur. The early penalty points rule is specifically designed to prevent the following situation....
Somebody has 0 or 1 teams entered but swears they will get all 6 teams in on time, but a day before the deadline, they change their mind and say they don't have enough time and pulls out. Then I have to scramble to find somebody who can build 6 teams in a day or two.
That's the reason for the first two "soft" deadlines... to make sure everybody is on pace to get all six teams completed on time.
I'm not saying this is the best or fairest system, but those early deadlines have accomplished what it's supposed to... to weed out procrastinators. Ironically, this year, we had the fewest ever number of dropouts. (Normally, we get 6-8 people dropping out between signup and the second deadline).