So if I use the range of scoring that is available to me, to my best judgement, and everyone else scores 7 and above, am I going to be blackballed? If so, then I'll change my scoring. If you want honest judging, then sign me up.
If judging required every score to be justified (Appearance, Taste and Tenderness), would teams be open to that? That way they would know why they got a 7 for tenderness and not a 9 (which more often than not, teams who have a good cook automatically think they'll get a 9). Funny thing is, KCBS has that capability today. Replace the current scorecard with the comment cards.
The problem today is you have to remember everything about an entry after scoring all of the entries and then fill out the comment cards afterwards. As you're judging an entry, it would be easier to record the immediate feedback from the sample on the comment card format that already has some pre-formatted criteria as check boxes. This would provide the transparency and add validity to the scoring numbers that judges provide and the teams receive.
You can mine all the numbers you want but to draw conclusions on why an entry was scored is all guesswork.