I've been staff-picked three times and out of those three I was notified twice by one of the staff members, Serena, that I was. So I'm pretty sure there are people running it. They say they pick on quality so whichever ones they pick means that that staff member must have really liked it. There are some staff-picks that aren't the best mechanically written but they have a great concept and characters and then there are some that are the opposite. And it's always important to keep in mind that what's good and bad in art is completely subjective. I love Penni's work, too, but that doesn't mean it's going to resonate with everyone just because it resonated with me.
I know they used to only pick newer novels with few subs as staff picks but now they just pick whatever strikes them as quality work. There's nice things about that and bad things about it. On the one hand, it gives someone with a ton of talent who still hasn't been noticed a chance in the sun, on the other hand, we're going to see a lot more people who already have a ton of subs getting it.
And really, I think Penni is doing absolutely fine without a staff-pick! She won the writer's camp and her stories have a bunch of loves and subscribers! They may not have picked her story from the camp because it's already going to get a ton of subs when it goes premium as will Beau Van Dalen's and the others that won.