There is no need to be bitter. From my experience, the design brief is just a starting point and the end result is often unexpected. There is never a "perfect" result.
From the few entries I have seen I have other favourites as well, but it wasn't for me to choose. The judges and people at Baraboux certainly had their own reasons for their choices, and there are so many factors that go into these decisions including personal reasons which are none of my concern. And how can one criticize a client's aesthetic taste?
In any case, what the competition has done is inspire a lot of Arabic typographic creativity and that is a great achievement for khtt.