HOWARD, I agree with you 100% when you said, "I do know the judging process is NOT some detailed elaborate conspiracy plan designed to evoke controversy."
But I'm probably only one of the 10% on this Board who would agree with that statement.
Friends, family, and fans have been disagreeing with bodybuilding decisions since the days of the AAU, way before the NPC and the IFBB were the head cheeses in the cheese-cake factory.
It may seem strange to say this but ..... that bit of judging controversy may be one of the major factors that keeps it alive and a major topic of conversation among the fans and a small part of the general population
Years ago we use to invite judging result antagonists to sit in as test judges in an effort to see if their judging tabulations were consistent with the official judging results.
No statistics here but during the majority of occasions ... the test judge scores were somewhat similar to the official results so the "It was political" accusations came to an abrupt halt among that group of test judge bodybuilding fans until a new group of fans made similar accusations and were eventually invited to 'sit in' and be a test judge.
I would bet you that all the GetBiggers who have been complaining about the official placings weren't even physically present .... and if they were present ..... they were most likely seated no where near the official judges' table.