Don't know how accurate the story is but I heard that the state of North Dakota has been working with the FAA on some guidelines for waivers.  A guy who has his 107 and uses a drone for work told me at church that there has not been a set guideline for waivers before and it was basically who looked at the application (or lack of a proper form that was to be filed out to be looked at "valued" for waiver).   He said that partly due to the Grand Sky research establishment by the air force base in Grand Forks and the use of drones by military and more private companies out of North Dakota there is more FAA guideline work going on.  I think it is called federal UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) with  Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NPUASTS) 
Basically what he told me - not sure of accuracy of my notes.

https://grandskynd.com/