The point of the original metaphor isn’t about disadvantage being simple and measurable, it’s simply about it existing and worthy of attention. A solution here

The point of the original metaphor isn’t about disadvantage being simple and measurable, it’s simply about it existing and worthy of attention. A solution here is largely academic, and not readily reached due to massive amounts of missing information. However if the question is simply, is it fair for someone to lose first place because the second place categorization was biased? Sure, it definitely can be.