Alright, I might be joining the discussion a bit late, but hear me out first:
It is very easy to find loopholes in many systems, and try to take advantage of those to then play it safe stating that said thing wasn't specified or well defined. If you cared enough about the jam or had some dignity, the best you could've done was ask the jam organizers. Plain and simple.
Now let me be clear about some other things that made NO DAMN SENSE. You got a theme to work with, make the game about the theme. If you don't then you're disqualified instantly. Nothing else matters inside the jam at that point for your game. Now, you can still take the feedback to make the game into something more polished to be released later on. There will be many more jams after all. The issue I have here is people not following the theme at all. I bet many of the people who were not in the jam, rated the games based on how much fun they had, how much they liked the games etc. That's fine on a personal level, but completely unfair, and absurd regarding this competition. These people are just like anyone else on other social media outlets who give a like to anything they like. In those places, that behavior is fine. In game jams? nah get that outta here. I put a shit to on effort into my entry, just like many other people, and it sucks to see your efforts get blown away by people trying to both abuse the system and play the victim.
Now, one more thing:
I am seeing a lot of "it's not about the money" type of excuses here. If money it's not even a thing that matters to you, then why cheat? play by the rules or just don't play and let others enjoy the competition. You're learning and growing through this, so, just do it right, fair and square.
TLDR; DQ the cheaters, follow the rules, none of the absurd.