Yeah, that describes it pretty well.
You’ve got to think about where the money in the NZLARPS account comes from. Only a small amount is from the membership fees, and those fees are balanced out by discounts at events. Most of the cash came from event overruns. All NZLARPS project events are intended to run at a profit, because the alternative is running at a loss. And because having cash in a account is useful for lending to projects, buying re-usable assets, etc.
Those event profits are paid for by everyone at events, not just NZLARPS members. So taking money from the NZLARPS accounts and spending it on social events for NZLARPS members is basically taking money off non-members and funnelling it to members. Not fair, really. A bit like throwing a party where half the attendees are paying for the other half.
A ball for larpers sounds like a fun idea, and I’m sure NZLARPS will support it in whatever way it can without losing money over it. I think attendees would be happy to pay for themselves and it shouldn’t seem exclusive to members.