Yes, I was very surprised with the verdict on this, and as a judge myself, even more surprised and rather perturbed that the judges had not even moved any of the pieces on that side of the table, let alone pick them up to have a good look! As you say they were 3/4 deep, large covering small and the lighting wasn’t the best. A person spends time and effort creating these little gems, and for a judge to be flippant enough not even to take time to pick up and discuss each piece with his colleagues is quite frankly not on.
I agree Judges do seem to see things differently, but there are 3 judges to each class and each judge must act on their own conscience and speak up. I have seen many a case where one judge tries to dominate their view over the others and this in itself is very wrong.