possibly Halle is offering more appearance money now? sensing an opportunity to take away from Queens and become the premier pre-wimby event.
Wouldn't surprise me if Halle did offer more appearance money than Queens does.
Another point though that perhaps is more relevant.... Halle has a roof over the centre court there, so perhaps Djokovic and Tsonga have decided to go to Halle and get some practice on a grass court under a roof ahead of Wimbledon.
Now that Wimbledon has a roof, it makes sense for players to play warm-up events where that tournament also has a roof, and if they are offering more money as well, it's logical for players to go to Halle.
Now... if Baghdatis really had wanted to play Queens, then he'd have signed up in the first place for it, and given that he usually plays Halle, I'm guessing the only reason he's playing here is because they wouldn't give him a WC and he knows how generous the LTA are in giving WC's to foreign players.
Presumably the LTA don't want to give a WC to anyone for all four of GB events, so Evans has to miss out on a WC for Queens, as he's already had won for Nottingham, and will get one for Eastbourne and Wimbledon (that is, if he gets a Wimbledon WC).
And maybe there is still an issue based on how he performed at Queens last year when he was given a WC and because of that they don't want to give him one this year.
That said, it might help him if he has to go through qualifying because if he cannot qualify, then he'd have been unlikely to win a main draw match anyway (unless he got one of the clay clowns in the draw) and will give him more experience on the surface.
And Evans seems to be at his best when being snubbed by the LTA.
That said, he should have got a WC here in my opinion....probably ahead of Baghdatis, who has never bothered with Queens in the past and has done nothing all year, and ahead of Dimitrov, although his WC is understandable to an extent.