A very objective and valid rant (a good kind of rant). :) I feel bad for those with an entitlement mindset, I do not know how they will handle failure or losing which is part of life. The problem with having this mindset is they will overlook the growth and learning as part of the process and instead just focus on the reward.
It is also absurd for someone to think that every participant in a contest should get something. That is why it is also called a 'competition' and one must be 'competitive'(in a healthy way) to get the prize. And a prize gets more valuable and sought after if it is limited. And in any contests, even consolation prizes are very limited. Your contests have been more than generous to upvote and curate as much entries.
Exactly, that´s why it is called competition! I started to give out 20 prizes because the number of people joining was too much for just one prize. Rewards are nice, we all want them but as you say, joining a contest is more about growing and learning, reading the other entries and making other connections.