as much as you want to blame bettman for this one, you cant, because the decision to remove rings was made in or before 1992(when it first occured), and bettman's reign as "supreme ruler" began in 1993. As to why not make a cup at the hhof with all the rings on it, well, probably because they all the cups to look the same as the others... it would get ridiculously large. And, no one would ever get to see the oversized cup anyways, because it would be the original one, because it cant be the one that is presented to the players, and the third cup has to be identical to the players cup...