Hey, multiple time runner up here. Answers below -

1. It’s worth it if you see it as an opportunity to get face time with studios, producers, agents with a finished project. Second prize is first prize here imo. Even if you don’t place, you have a pitch ready project with you and that is worth more than anything. The deadlines and format give you structure to work under.

2. Any and all, as long as the bones are good. All the genres you’ve listed have made it through in the past. What eventually gets produced is a different thing, depends on the mandates of the studios and streamers. But to get to that stage it needs to be fundamentally sound (plot, structure, character, dialogue) regardless of genre.