2020 was the first year Legion was intending on having UCI Continental status, so this is their first year actually racing with that license, so they hadn’t had a track record with that license yet. All of their wins were in the amateur circuit as Cat 1 racers. In the U.S., Cat 1/2 and Pro generally have a race together at racing events.
Yes, we care about the crit jersey because road racing is almost non-existent in the U.S. (see below). Part of having both amateur and pro levels certainly has to come down to getting the aforementioned license. I believe that Justin said in a podcast that it’s $25k just to buy the license, and in addition, you have to have an additional $50k just sitting around as part of the license agreement. It’s some kind of contingency cost that he and the team cannot touch, essentially.
So you have that expense before you even get bikes, pay for travel and accommodations, pay for race fees, insurance, etc. Without a license, running a team is super expensive. I imagine for some teams, buying that next license up just doesn’t make fiscal sense so they opt to remain at the amateur status instead.
Bike racing in the U.S. doesn’t have the same kind of public support it has in other countries (although it appears to be changing with the help of Legion and gravel races becoming national headlines).
Road races are practically dead in the U.S. And Justin’s vision for the team is about creating a new business model for cycling in the U.S. around the crit scene. There is a great thread about how road races are dying in the States on the forum already if you’d like to learn more about why. Below is the link.
In any case, Justin and his team don’t really care about road races because their vision is focused on the crit scene as a means of building local and regional cycling communities and hubs that can host teams from other communities similar to how the NBA, NFL and NHL got their starts. Justin is interested in creating something new rather than trying to fit into what he considers to be an old and outdated business model that has failed in the U.S.