Concerns about the Legitimacy of the Game Development World Championship

Can anyone offer an experience in relation to the GDWC?

Because I'm concerned about the legitimacy of this as an actual contest.

For context, I recently made my first indie game as a solo dev. It's a passion project that took six months to complete.

Not long after I published it, someone from the GDWC team contacted me to enter my game into the contest. Even though my game might be the first of its kind in its genre, I didn't have an expectation that my game would win any awards because its genre is very niche and the game might not be optimized to their standards.  But I still tried even though I was skeptical about them.  I set up an account and sent in the steam keys on the hope that someone there would get to see my game.  Even if it was only a few judges and it didn't win.

But after their recent email that led to a link for the finalists, I checked my Steamworks account to query if my keys had even been activated and none of them were.

I rechecked the rules and noticed this: "Organizer cannot guarantee that all submitted games are playtested."

Is it an unfair contest on that basis?  It may just be my disappointment talking, but when participants are "invited," while a rule like that exists, it makes a contest feel like it is preying upon one's desperation to be seen.

I know people can say I didn't read the rules carefully enough, but I never thought a rule like that would exist in a contest like this. I know part of the disappointment is on me for not checking that more carefully. I could have avoided this contest entirely in that case. But that rule still makes me wonder what the point in entering a contest like this is. (At least for a small unknown dev like me.)

Is what I am saying and feeling about this rule making sense?