But the competition process looks weird to me. Aparently it's not like a sports fixture, where the rules are set before the competition, and the referee just enforces the rules; this referee adjusts the rules while the competition is underway.

NIST has form for juking the standards, or at least for letting the NSA juke them. If they're not completely transparent, then any standard they recommend is open to question, which isn't good for a standard.