I don't like the idea of closing the registry, I have several reasons for this.
Closing the registry will not make the registry a breed. Minis are not a breed. They have never been a breed, and they will never be a breed. That is my opinion at least, and here is why. Our ONLY restriction on being registered is height. We show according to height. We strive for a certain height. The name itself, "Miniature" indicates height. Height, height, height, we are a HEIGHT registry.
Most(not all) but most, other breeds only allow certain colors. Most other breeds(not all) but most, don't care about height. There is always an average height, but, for example, AQHA would let an 18 hand horse in, if one existed. The percheron registry would let a 10 hand horse in, if one existed. BREEDS strive for a type of horse bred for a specific purpose. Yes there are breeds that are good all-around horses. But, for example the Thoroughbred, while it might make a great barrel racer or pleasure horse, it was bred to race. A Clydesdale, while it might make a great dressage horse, it was bred to work. The saddlebred, while it might make a great jumper, was bred to be a saddleseat/park/harness horse.
Because of this, I think that the Miniature Horse registries are very unique. We allow for any color. Some of our horses like like QH, some look like Arabs, some look like Saddlebreds. Minis can do anything. There is nothing wrong with being a height registry. For some reason the phrase "Just a height registry" has developed a very negative connotation, and I don't understand why.
That said, I think it is important that we keep feeding the gene pool with great blood, be it shetland blood, or just the blood of a great horse who happened to come from nothing. I think the hardshipping needs to be an option for these cases.
I don't believe for one second that closing the registry will aid in the elimination of the dwarf gene. Eliminating the dwarf gene requires responsible breeding. There is plenty of irresponsible breeding going on already within AMHA and closing the registry won't make that magically disappear.