Yes, I completely understand your practical and material reasons for not wanting to go over 3 hours. My opinion was more that you shouldn't devalue yourself if you go over. The three-hour limit is mainly a framework and nothing else.
As for the ranking, I quite agree, although it obviously depends on the other games submitted to the jam. And it also depends on your current track record. There's no such thing as genius. Creating games is like anything else, you have to learn :)
Anyway, I was very interested in your thoughts and thank you for these simultaneous discussions on our two pages!
I hope to bump into you here and there, during a trijam or elsewhere :D