I think resource-efficiency contests like these (going by the 300K contests I've done in the past) tend to breed symmetry maps. It's a lot easier to make your brushes and texture palettes perform double duty. But yeah, it has its limits. At any rate, I don't see anything wrong with curving the score for a map based on the "level of difficulty"
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I tried to make an AS map for a 300K contest a year or two ago. It didn't quite come off. If I have time (and haven't lost the BSP version) maybe I will try to soup it up for 512K.