> Seems like the objection is to the process, not the result.

Right. The game is not eligible for the award. This is not a comment on the quality of the game.

The Indie Game Awards require zero AI content. The devs fully intended to ship without AI content but made a mistake, disqualifying themselves for the award. This is simply how competition rules work. I have a friend who plays competitive trading card games, and one day he showed up to a national event with an extra card in his box after playing with some friends late at night. It was an honest mistake, and the judges were quite sympathetic, but he was still disqualified!

BTW, the game is incredible.