PG is just pointing out a general fact, which is well known to those who are constantly being judged. It doesn't change whether PG wrote this as a response to

PG is just pointing out a general fact, which is well known to those who are constantly being judged. It doesn't change whether PG wrote this as a response to the post, or as a general advice. If you doubt that, ask anybody in the profession where being judged is in its nature (I sometimes audition as an actor so I think I know that business a bit.) Your mentioning about hidden bias is somewhat true, except that it's not really hidden, but just implicit---in most of the judgement there are always some implicit criteria the choosers have, and good players know that. Assuming otherwise is too naive. About appealing: As far as you're not in the few of the obvious top group or in the obvious fall-behind groups in terms of the primary factors, any arbitrary secondary factors can put you in either side. Those factors are so random and it's waste of time to appeal---sure, you may have some chance of the judgements reversed, but it is much wiser to spend that time to make yourself excel in the primary factors, so that next time such randomness will affect less to the outcome, because if you like to live a life taking challenges, you will be constantly judged, and you won't have time to deal with those randomness.