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Why wouldn't there be a point to the GTE Am class in ELMS? There's more than enough entries, and they're pretty established names, and some long time series supporters. JMW, Proton, Aston Martin, AF Corse. Dropping GTE-Am won't move these teams to WEC, it'll just move them to Blancpain or national series.
ELMS is meant to house more Am teams than Pro teams, hence why there is no LMP1 or GTE-Pro. So if you remove GTE-Am then you end up with a multi-class series with no GT class, that's meant to provide entries for Le Mans, which doesn't make any sense.
From the drivers side it works too. It's a step between national series and world series. Without GTE-Am, it'd force drivers to move to Blancpain before they can get a shot at WEC. Blancpain doesn't have prototypes, so there's not as much learning that can be taken from it. Without GTE-Am, it means that a GTE drivers first experience of being on track with an LMP will be in FIA WEC, with the LMP2 hybrids. Giving experience with LMP2s first is a far better idea, especially for Am drivers.
Of course this only applies to drivers in Europe. But it probably isn't a great idea to tell every driver in the European sportscar market to go through IMSA and move to the states to get a stepping stone from National to GTE-Pro.
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