Apologies if we've upset anyone - we're trying to do something good here and giving up a ton of our own spare time as well. But I can guarantee that every single game will get played by folk in the industry that may be hiring, and it's partly why we do the playthrough livestreams, to ensure that a wider group of industry folk get to see them too. The shortlist is manually curated though, not just whatever games are rated most by the community, as I agree, that would have all sorts of inherent unfairness.
I think it'd cause more problems if we try to change the system mid-way, when many of the judges have already started, but we can speak to the companies about the implications of doing it differently in future - it might mean not being able to get so many companies involved if we're asking them to spend time on games they're less likely to be interested in though.
But apologies again if anyone feels misled, the thought of that is heart-breaking - and we'll definitely take these concerns into consideration for the future when trying to weigh up all the different factors of making things as appealing and viable as possible to all concerned.