I would say it’s more than fair.
the hackaton winners did everything without funding of the Hackaton way before the hackaton even went live!
to cry over not having enough funds in order to be succesfull is what cowards do, honestly.
Success is not about having money, fast money is fast in earning and fast in losing.
You basically come into a made nest and have everything set up already for you.
The old projects have been fighting for years and were never funded by anyone.
participating in the hackaton is not for the money mainly but for the publicity, to build a bigger community, to gain traction.
Most projects I see complaining right now are shitty projects on test net trying to get money and vanish again.
better use your time wisely and build instead of complain.
snowflakes are never successfull.
also the judges are not stupid, they consider everything.
it’s not easier at all for a previous winner because they need to come up with new ideas and need to be creative.
and for me personally: if the project sounds good and they can proof they are doing something → I vote for them as I did right now.
and I am 100% sure the rest of the community does so too.