I'll take a stab at this, as I actually understand their thinking and why they arrived at the arbitrary number they did.
Short version:
The thing to remember in all of this is that the Light Sport Rules were never meant to be a substitute for the Private Pilot certificate, but something new and unique from it.
Long version:
While there was a lot said about "affordable aircraft" and "innovation" around Light Sport, the truth of the matter is that the FAA had a problem with ultralights.
Ultralights were getting "fat" and pretty high performance with no real way to police it, and two seat ultralights, thanks to technological advances and some really smart people, were up and coming. No pilot certificate is required at all to pilot an ultralight, and no inspection of any sort was required on the aircraft itself.
Pick any motivation one desires - a genuine concern for safety or an over powerful government agency seeking to wrap its tentacles around the last vestige of freedom in aviation - but the FAA looked around and saw how Europe handled light aircraft. Being Americans, they sought to adapt and improve them.
The compromise to the fat ultralight problem was to come up with a new program that would codify pilot training with relaxed medical standards and determine a new class of aircraft to fit within it. The ultralight pilots could get hotter aircraft honestly, the training requirements weren't onerous, and the limitations matched what they were doing anyway.
The actual upper gross weight, stall and cruise speeds, as well as other characteristics of the new Light Sport class were determined in conference starting from a blank sheet of paper. Current aircraft - both amateur built and certified - were not considered in the negotiations. Indeed, the 1320 pound gross weight number is actually higher than what was originally suggested. Big fans of metric measurements in that room, as it's a nice round 600 kg.
The LSA standards are universal, though, so if a production aircraft fell within the criteria it was open to Light Sport rules. Champs and Cubs were in, the Cessna 150 was out. It is what it is.
Furthermore, the FAA wisely decided that Private Pilot certificate holders could fly under Light Sport rules. This includes the medical portion - a PPL with an expired Class III physical could legally pilot an LSA aircraft with just his driver's license to cover it.
[edit]
The Light Sport program's goals worked a treat for me. I built my LSA compliant aircraft for less than 15,000 USD, and my pilot training cost around 5,000. So for 20K I'm a pilot up in the air. Even I can afford that.
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