Besides the scalability of non-relational data stores, would the increased flexibility in object creation and modification be enough of a reason to make the switch? Would object-relational mapping be a comparable solution?
I think this is a great example of a form mapping more cleanly to a key value store than a relational DB. Submissions to forms like this are documents in the sense that they need to be recorded as-is. If the user moves or changes their name down the line its actually a feature and not a bug that these records won't be updated.
Nifty, but I could see this causing aggravation on the backend (i.e. using the data from one generation of your form to another). Still, very flexible.
Entirely typical for the industry, they waste untold developer hours dicking around with a single feature when the could have just installed an open source CMS and gotten the feature (and all kinds of other stuff) as part of the package. Grade: D