Let me give a dissent: While I agree, in principle, I was once the beneficiary of a writing contest judge's "I could have disqualified this and thrown it in the trash, unread, on a technicality. I didn't, but only because you hooked me in with your writing and kept doing it until I couldn't put it down."

I won First Place, but it was an amateur move that left me chastened and I haven't done THAT again. (I'd single-spaced, instead of double-spaced, the submission.) I would not have quibbled, had I been disqualified.

Writing contests are not sweepstakes. There is, and always should be, subjectivity. What worries me more is the risk of bias. I much prefer anonymous submissions and judges who don't have to be trusted to be impartial, because there's no way for them not to be.