The general disdain for ‘artistic luvvies’ and sportspeople on this forum also baffles me.
I realise their exploits may not be to your taste or in a field you care much about. However, whether you agree or not their exploits bring a lot of pleasure to a great many people (much of it vicariously admittedly) and that is the point of the award.
The local person doing civic deeds is very deserving of an award but probably reaches far fewer people in reality.
Basically, however the system works you’ll never please everyone.
If you hand them out like candy you devalue them. If you make them too hard to get they become pointless. And some people will just never agree with most awards whatever the criteria.
BV