The Contest Experience, Again

So, I've got the score sheets from the one and only contest I've ever entered.

I did all right - a 77 average score.

Still, it's weird. I'm not sure I'd do it again.

There was some good feedback here (yes, I had my heroine look in the mirror and describe herself - I cringe now, but I had no idea it was overused when I wrote it). And they said some very nice things, especially about my writing. And the criticisms were more about the central conflict, which is the same criticism the agent had, so that's all perfectly sane.

Still:

"Editors won't accept the Times New Roman font you used." WTF? The entry form said "Courier or Times New Roman" and I got docked points for TNR?

"I've read that romance readers want heroes who don't have personality defects, at least not major ones." Huh? Who wants to read about a character without flaws? I made him shy, not a frickin' child molester. And aren't you a romance reader? If you aren't, what are you doing here?

Why did I get docked three points for my POV? Didn't you like it? Couldn't you write something about why?

How come I got docked points for "Does the dialogue suit the characters" and then at the bottom of the page, "Dialogue is very well done"? Which one is it?

In short, as suspected, I could easily drive myself crazy with this. Still, if I'm going to pay $30 for whoever-the-hell (it's all done anonymously) to mess with my head, I may as well rant about it on my blog. If not here, where?

There's something wrong about the whole process, but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the scoresheet? The judges with no qualifications? I'm not sure yet. But next time I might use my money for a round of queries. It sounds like better odds.