Steam Awards Nomination Committee 2021

Thanks. Three more days...

That is, sadly, very true.

That's exactly how it works. Every year the winners are consistently selected among the games with the most players i.e. the most mainstream. The categories don't change much. You'll never see any hidden gems win even if they're good, unless they've already become so mainstream that they are played by a ton of people anyway and are no longer hidden.

As long as they want to select games purely by popular vote it's unfortunately going to stay that way.

There is another reason why this is true: How do people KNOW that game x is so good/fitting for category y, when they didn't played it?
Or in other words: How can I vote for a game I never heard/ever played? That's most times happening for me with these types of votes.