I'm not too keen on competitions, while agreeing with much of what you are saying. Cateen was probably the most Chopin like person in the most recent competition; however he was eliminated in the next to the final round. The fact is the competition is too limiting for a musician of Cateen's caliber. The contest has no improvisational or compositional component. Competitions seems to be designed in large part for high quality parrots. I don't think Yuja entered any high level competitions, yet she is absolutely outstanding for several reasons other than having won some specific competition.
