In previous years we had up to ~590 lifters with 15 categories, so 700 with 20 isn't outrageous.
Personally, I never liked this many people attending a World Championships. Up to me the entries would be capped at 500, 25 per current categories, only A+B groups.
Seems excessive to have as many sessions as an AO Series (or finals) for a World Championships.
Other objectively scored sports (e.g. swimming, athletics) have qualifying standards for world championships, don't they? Decide how many athletes you want per weight class (say, aim for 2-3 sessions per category), look at results and determine what standard should get you close to that number, and then say you have to hit the standard at an IWF bronze/silver/gold event in the preceding 6-8 months to qualify.
Any breakdown of how many lifters there are in the men's 89kg and women's 71kg classes compared to the mens 96kg and women's 64kg? Could part of the reason for those classes going to the E sessions be that each of them have a nearby classes that isn't contested at the Olympics?
Yeah, 700+ -- even 500+ -- seems excessive for an international championship where all qualifiers are only doing two events (snatch + C&J). I know that swimming has (or at least had) WC qualifying standards, and I'm pretty sure track does as well. That being said, we should have a look at those athletes in the bottom 20%-25% of the start sheets: are they adequately "above average" to be participating in a WC? I have a feeling that there are some entries that would be pushing to make an A-session at some of the better AO-series comps. . . that's probably a good cut-off point, and one that's easy to justify. Heck, given this new age of ROBI, one could just set a ROBI-point-based cut-off.
I believe there was a qualification total in place for Worlds or Euros in the last few years, which was 70% of the WR for men, and 60% of the WR for women. This may well have been at the discretion of the country sending lifters.