I think it comes down to contextualizing the theme for the player in a way that 'feels' original.
As an example, the game ranked 9th overall in this jam, "Blade Breaker: Sword Taker", might have gotten such an amazing score because, among other reasons, it took the rather uninspired idea of "only one use" and twisted it into "only one durability". I was actually aiming for "only one durability" with my game as well, however I framed the game around this idea in the wrong way by making the things you pick up more like "items" rather than "weapons". With a blade, you can say that it "broke", but with a potion or a handgun, you'd say it got "used". And it's this small distinction that makes one game 'feel' more original than another!
Or well... that's at least what I've gathered from this jam. There are definitely loads of other reasons why some executions of the same idea might have gotten better ratings than others - whether it be presentation, game feel or something different entirely! I feel the best thing we can do right now is to be proud of the games we made, the experience that we got from making them and the chance to retrospectively look back and think about what we can do differently next time!