[Will]

I am happy with the result (congratulations Martin!), but the reasoning is objectively flawed. The key concept is:
"In addition, if an error is made in that judgment, the benefit of the doubt goes to the athlete when an error is not related to the validity of the athlete’s performance."
I am assuming, that "not related to the validity of the athlete's performance" means "the athlete is not helped by this error." Anyone who believes that not bringing a tag up does not facilitate a performance need only compare my (or any other) CNF dive, where I use one hand to pull on the line, while the other is detaching the tag and making sure it is fastened onto my leg (or in Winram's case, tucked into his wetsuit hood), and Stepanek's dive: a quick, trouble-free turn, using both hands to pull on the line and start the ascent quicker. I have practiced the turn and taking the tag possibly more than any other CNF diver, and yet it still adds 1-2" on to my dive time, not to mention a less efficient pull on the line to start the ascent.
Not bringing a tag to the surface expedites performance. That is an uncontestable fact.
If I drop my weight belt at the bottom it will be an easier dive. If I don't have to bother with taking a tag from the bottom plate and attaching it to my body it will be an easier dive. The difference between these two examples is only a question of the degree that the dive is made easier.
Ask yourself: if the on-site judges forgot to disqualify a diver for having dropped their weight belt and thereby performed a CW dive in VW would you allow them to keep the world record? If you answer no to this question then it logically follows that you must disqualify a non-tag dive for precisely the same reason.

Personally, I would prefer Stepanek to keep his WR (I was even more sympathetic until I found out that he too is an AIDA judge and wasn't up to play with a 2 year old rule!), however the only means that AIDA has to validate this 83m dive is if AIDA allows future attempts to be conducted on the same terms, i.e. without tags.
I fear that AIDA will earn itself a very negative reputation amongst the freediving society if it awards a WR to a dive that ignores an AIDA rule but still requires future dives to respect that rule. The fact that the mistake was made by a total of 3 AIDA judges (Stepanek himself is an AIDA judge) will only further discredit AIDA's reputation.

Play it safe and reconsider this decision, and if you can, abolish tags in the disciplines where the means of propulsion are the hands.

William Trubridge.