Last hackathon I participated in was merely "best presentation". Code, app did not matter, it was idea and presentation what mattered.

Thankfully, properly working app won that one, nonetheless they suck now.

In my experience they've always been this way. Real engineers lose to idiots that can knock out a nice Wordpress website. Now the way real engineers lose to idiots that can vibe out a nice UI.

Same same, but different.