Whereas I am wondering why people are suggesting that they should not.
I haven't been involved in chess organisation, as opposed to purely teaching, for about 10 years, but government grants were being made to the BCF (it changed its name to the ECF since then) through the Department of Education in those days. It was a very informal arrangement. The argument is that there should be no distinction between purely mind sports and other less cerebral ones, because competitors' expenses at the top level are not very different. The equipment costs a lot less than some sports, but more than others, but travel to international events costs just as much, as does employing trainers and coaches. If it is worthy of support, why not put that support on a firm footing alongside other areas of competition?
Events I organised were primarily aimed at children, but sometimes we would open the under 18 section to adults whilst having separate prizes for u18s, should adults take the main prizes. There were plenty of very strong players who would be off representing England, and occasionally other countries, who turned up to my events, and I used to charge an entry fee sufficient to support a prize structure generous enough to make a significant contribution to their costs. It was not uncommon for players to turn down international invitations because of cost. My son, who between the ages of 8 and 12 was one of the strongesst players in England in his age group, used his winnings over several years to finance a trip to St. Petersburg with a BCF party. From 12 onwards his progress did not keep up with his main rivals, and one reason was that he did not have access to the best coaches, because I couldn't afford them. Up to that point I had coached him, but I am not a strong enough player to have taken him further. It was very sad to watch him fall down the rankings. He may have done so anyway, but knowing that players he used to beat regularly were getting levels of coaching that was not available to him, and using skills acquired in that that coaching to beat him in tournaments, was an extremely strong demotivator. Having some finance in place to support players like him would have gone some way to levelling the platyng field.