[jeffy]

Beer judging is subjective, but I still enter competitions not so much for the feedback but for the glory and fame of winning 😉
Plus I like to support the local circuit and I feel that a judge earns more respect if he brews, enters and wins in competitions.
I entered the NHC this year with 3 beers/meads that recently won medals in similarly sized competitions. None of them met the criteria to go to the final round. To add insult, two of the categories sent fewer than 3 beers to the next round. A beer that scored 39 a few weeks ago didn’t make the 30 point cut-off. I understand though. Different judge, different day.
The AHA lets the local organizers take control of the entire first round. They let each region organize the competition, offering support, but not micromanaging. So if you get questionable feedback, you should contact the regional organizer. He’s the one who “hired” the volunteers to judge your entry. In the South region (Tampa) that would be me.

[Village Taphouse]

One other point:  If I expected robust feedback on my comp beers but all I received was "needs work" or something I would be peeved.  A person who enters a comp and gets low scores probably wants to really get into why the beer scored poorly.  I suppose that if my beers scored well and a judge wrote "nice work" I would be peeved too because in that case I'd like to know more about what they thought about it.  All that said, I don't think that part has to do with the AHA and the value it brings.  Different animals.