Not quite true on a number of levels :)  The Board doesn't directly make funding commitments, it approves them – and wholesale, not line by line.  It would hardly change its approval of an annual budget based on how this 1% of the budget is allocated to travel+events.

The ED could make a meaningful commitment on this front.  As could the broader community of potential organizers and regional organizations.  For instance, a city with regional support & access to a great & inexpensive venue could commit to host a Wikimania in any year when there wasn't a suitable bid elsewhere.  

 

Right.  More specifically, if Wikimania is billed as a costly WMF line-item, organizers will plan for it and attendees will expect it (whatever that means - opulence, ticket prices, number of attendees fully subsidized by the WMF [whether via scholarship or otherwise]).  If it isn't, people will plan and design the conferences differently.

Also noted in the roundtable discussion: WordPress has an interesting model with hundreds of self-funding regional meetings a year, and two international meetings, all of which are significantly lower overhead than Wikimanias but still great community events, fun & productive.  The primary costs of any con are airfare and lodging.  If we make sure that everyone is close to a multinational event hosted somewhere with simple travel & lodging options, whether or not they attend The Largest International Gathering (or whether indeed there is a single one) makes less of a difference.