Without joining in the pissing match..

I can imagine it gets pretty frustrating to bust your ass working on an airplane, putting hundreds of hours into the finish, then taking it to a jet meet and getting beaten out for a 'best finish' award by someone who wrote a check to Skymaster for one of their Tiger Meet painted airplanes or something.

Let's face it.. while most of us generally don't worry about the awards at a jet meet, or any other sort of non-competitive fly-in, a little validation from your peers for your hard work never hurts either.