Each and every creator that was nominated this year fully deserved the support the community showed them.
The wording on the newspost you're referring to is a little different to what was in the actual survey - probably should have updated that so it reflected the survey, but we explicitly state for the "New" categories you can vote for someone who started making videos in the past year, or recently gained traction. Never thought it'd be an issue given the survey came a week prior to this post, so everyone who voted knew.
The Golden Gnomes are a celebration of our wonderful community, and every award is decided upon entirely by the people who vote.
I do think there is room for improvement, and that the categories could be changed or more of them added, but to suggest Hanannie should be disqualified when she was the clear favourite is just absurd.
Hanannie got her nomination, and her award, fair and square.