From my point of view and of course, IMHO, wearing TdF yellow (or polka dot or Giro pink or green jersey, etc, etc...) to me doesn't mean that a local rider had to earn it. I guessing most of these riders, myself included, like the graphics/designs of these jerseys. Some might even be paying homage to that bike event. Who knows. Now, if I was wearing polka dot and had to walk the bike up a hill, that will be a diff story... :-) But nevertheless, personally, I will not give heat to that person that had to walk the hill even if he/she was wearing polka dot, WC stripes or a Nascar t-shirt.

This argument can be stretched to include TdF kit riders and somebody could ask why are these people wearing a full team kit when they are not part of that TdF team and, they did not 'earned' the right to be on that team?