It is generally sad, we’ve applied for a lot of design awards over time and I found the one that impressed me the most in terms of depth and quality was the Australian Good design award (easily confused with the Chicago athenaeum Good design above). They had an award ceremony which was bigger than an IDSA conference, a well thought out and documented award process, and all of the design entries were placed in display cases scattered around Sydney during the Vivid Sydney light festival, which gave really great exposure to the general public. Was really honored to attend and win an award.
The rest - yeah I just feel like I’m being scammed for fees. Especially ones like the iF where you win and they say “congrats you’ve won, please send us $4000 euros to collect your reward and get a picture in this giant book no one buys anymore”.
But corporations like them as PR pieces for the external world, so it is what it is.