to me it's just turning the game into a bland dry husk with no fun value whatsoever
instead of just having a friendly fight where you push each other out of the arena it's just worrying about unimportant crap like numbers and priority
most smash games are incredibly fun, even with no items. a 1v1 is like a battle of minds, you have to read your opponent and be able to punish accordingly, you have to play airtight and not miss a thing. i understand that items are fun but it's a different kind of fun. one that isn't conducive to improving your skill or competitive play. it's not worrying about unimportant crap, it's about keeping it fair, so that you know the results are evidence of SKILL, not of luck.
anyway with a small tournament like this whether items are on or not probably doesn't matter, esp if most people want items on
personally i think it should only be a few items like smash ball or fairy bottle, items that dont immediately give you a good effect so the opponent has a chance