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Why Bother Setting Contest Rules?

The phrase "Oh, that happens constantly" regarding contest winners who didn't follow the guidelines should not be something we nonchalantly accept on this site for writers...and yet it is. Today, though, I've participated long enough in the FS version of The Emperor's New Clothes. I'm going to call out what I actually see regarding not following contest rules yet making it to the Winner's Circle anyway.

And I'm not talking about just the member sponsored ones. The site-sponsored Sonnet contest that just announced its winners has left me simultaneously baffled and aggravated for the same reason: because only one of the four "winners" complied with the formatting of, as was SOOO specifically set forth in the rules, a Shakespearean-style sonnet. To wit:


First quatrain: An exposition of the main theme and main metaphor.
Second quatrain: Theme and metaphor extended or complicated; often, some imaginative example is given.
Third quatrain: Peripeteia (a twist or conflict), often introduced by a "but" (very often leading off the ninth line).
Couplet: Summarizes and leaves the reader with a new, concluding image.

To my fellow Members: I challenge you to read through them all and see what I see. Can you understand my point?
And to our oh-so secret and supposedly knowledgeable Contest Committee Members: Why did you bother going to such lengths and specificity with your rules if you're going to choose "winners" whose pieces didn't even marginally follow them? It's total nonsense.

And for the record, I have no dog in this particular fight. Sonnet-writing is not in my wheelhouse. But I do absolutely love reading them...well, you know, the authentic ones.