Yeah, I felt bad because I thought some of the popular comics like Asura's Bride and PH may not have gotten a fair shake because of how popular they were. We don't know where LW is getting their funding. It could be from the SK government, it could actually be ad revenue, or something else. In the case of PH, she had the potential to beat I Love Yoo eventually, so maybe it's true that LW wouldn't be able to afford featuring PH right now. If that's the case (I'm not saying it is because again, nothing is certain until LW confirms it), then that really sucks because despite the fact that I see a lot of problems with PH's writing, I genuinely think Sophism worked harder than many people (myself included) to put out a solid comic. She even went as far as including an original soundtrack and it actually sounds legit.
PH's art pushed me to study her methods and improve my own entry because I thought she would at least get featured. The fact she didn't even make top 8 was discouraging because if I can't match the quality of PH, how the heck could I ever get featured? Sure, PH's writing needed a lot of work and the premise does raise some concerns, but I think it's something a qualified editor could easily fix. So it feels almost as if this was a lottery rather than a contest.
Just because a popular creator has more reach doesn't mean they didn't work hard to get there. Many grinded for years, going through trial and error to learn the formatting, composition, and figuring out Sketchup. I know this because I went through it for the first time for the contest, so I can sympathize with some of them. I don't think they should be dismissed for their numbers and if PH or anyone else who genuinely had a shot at top 8 feels robbed or wronged in any way, it's a perfectly valid reaction. It doesn't change anything, sure, but I still empathize with them.
Also, just because some people got more exposure/recognition doesn't mean it translates to a viable income. Popular creators want to get featured because it's a lot less stressful than trying to manage a business through Patreon or any other means. Being featured means you don't have to worry about marketing or complex tax stuff that comes with being self-employed (or for some, an employer if they need assistance) or the emotionally taxing task of dealing with customer service. It means you can focus entirely on creating and then collecting a paycheck. Even with a big audience, some featured creators may not be able to work on their comics full time if they had to rely solely on fan funding.
Take Mongie from Let's Play for example. She currently has 318 patrons. If you search her up on graphtreon, Mongie is making $800-$2k. If you calculate her highest tier which is $5 x 318 = $1590. It's decent, but minimum wage is not enough for some people depending on their circumstances. It may not be enough to justify working full time on a comic if you have a family to feed or medical bills or debt or just a general higher cost of living in your area/country and you're unable to move. Maybe she could earn more if she changed her rewards or if she had to fund LP through Patreon, but we will never know. Art is a tough business, so popular or not, I feel empathy for other struggling artists since I am one.