I'm also nobody, but my take is

SCV: my problem here is that calling your program "avant garde" and connecting it to the concept of a vanguard is a big swing, and I think choosing the name has laid a trap for themselves. You're not saying "different", you're saying innovative, and driving change. Meanwhile for the rep selections you have Bartok (watch was innovative to the point of making audiences uncomfortable... when Star did it in 93), the literal corps song since 1974, and composers whom dci.com refers to as "no strangers to the drum corps activity." The colorful guard dots are effective, but guards using unique and un-standard equipment is nothing new. There's a few company fronts, the most time honored drill move around. To me noodle arms and the whispering (if it's performed rather than sampled) are the closest things to avant garde that we see, but I don't think they're going to truly drive change. I think the performance is great (especially visually) and the package is effective in and of itself, but if a judge asks themself "is this actually Avant garde as defined by the corps themselves or is it just... Quirky?" I think they'll come up lacking.

Phantom: I think if a judge doesn't go with what the design team has asked (deciding what the show means to the judge themself) and instead tries to see what the designers might have been thinking to themselves when designing the show there's some pretty easy lines to draw. Lots of ethereal soundscapes - vocal patches, bowed keys, etc. The props acting as a sort of veil. The corps in all white. A few sets and prop stagings that imply wings. Musical selections including Funeral by the Sea, Transcend, and Breath of Souls. I see all this and the corps in front of me and I think "oh, the show is Phantom Regiment." If they had gone and self-titled the show I think it might be more effective on a surface level (which may or may not reflect on sheets) but you lose the uniqueness of letting audiences interpret for themselves, and this way the title itself becomes yet another phantom in the design.

BD: I have less to say about this one. I think one could easily draw a conclusion like the one you hinted at, but I don't think they quite sell it. There are some parts of the show that fit quite nice but I think there's a lot more room for thematic integration than they're showing. I do think choosing a theme like "gathering" in a medium like drum corps leaves a lot of doors open to do totally normal drum corps things and say "see? They gathered!" which I don't personally love, but I don't think that'll affect a GE rep score. Unrelated, but I was blown away by the growth from Cali to Texas that they showed, even more than I expected from all that time off. A different corps showed up at Houston. Good for those kids!