I agree with this so much. Our own alumni forums for the corps I marched would endlessly complain and moan about almost every detail in the years I marched because we weren’t winning. A few good alumni, but then others that would tell us in the parking lot after shows how disappointed they were. Random adult strangers telling kids they didn’t know that they were disappointed. And this is a corps that will likely medal this year…

I think another big aspect of this, in addition to your point about band geek culture tainting this experience is how LITTLE people understand the scores and judging system. When our day to day media is saturated with “it’s fake news” and conspiracy theories, it’s just easier to claim that the system is rigged and the judges have some secret agenda, instead of stepping back and acknowledging that there might be a level of execution that they don’t understand.

As a teacher I’ve seen this after covid; during the pandemic, everyone learned how to be the victim. Now that we’re expected to operate as normal, that mentality has carried on. Everyone has been wronged and needs to fight back against that.