My theory is that things got screwed up when they let all of us start voting (no offense intended). What do you expect from folks that will ask questions like, "Was Ansel Adams or Yosef Karsh over-rated?".
There's a guy in my photography club who had been doing pretty well in our competitions. One night, his pics didn't fare so well, but a shot of a peacock took first place. Man, was he ever upset! He was very vocal about the quality of judging and what we should do to correct things. However, this last competition, he entered a peacock shot of his own (nearly identical to the peacock picture he'd complained so loudly about) and scored really well. Suddenly, the judges were geniuses! Heck, he didn't even realize the picture was that good, he told me. LOL LOL So....take it all with a grain of salt, IMHO.