Yes, exchanging reward points directly for products yields the best value. The lowest exchange rate is redeeming exclusive points for cash, which makes it up by the fact that cash can be spent on non-BL products.
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Heck I’m happy to see some of the designs being put out that are using anything from the maker supply selection. lol
Also happy to see anything that is not another tealight holder if they are using the specific kit. 
I stopped reporting the models and creators that fail to abide to the contest rules. In the end @MakerWorld wants exactly what people are doing. They want quantity over quality. They want another creality cloud or makeronline and they are getting there really fast.
Just looking at the trending i can see so many there that don’t fit the contest or use any part from the beginners kit at all.
And most of those are from creators with big number. Check for example, the magsafe stand from Abstractia Designs. No parts at all!
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I’m sure they can either pay you to do this, or do it themself.
you have already seen what the winners are, so what is your carrot?
let them be the judge and let them also do the work, community doing the work is just giving the chance of unfair judgement.
And it has been reported by myself three times now. 
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Forget it. Big numbers creators means they can do whatever they want.
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Some people will enter not one, not two, but five entries that don’t even come close to meeting the rules for the competition. In theory if MW upheld that 100 point penalty those people would be looking at -500 points and that might actually discourage them from doing it again in the future… but since they aren’t even removing them from the contest I doubt that penalty ever gets issued.
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I have just taken a walk through this manure show.
So many have no parts from MakerSupply, while others have parts from unrelated MakerSupply kits.
Then those that use a rubber band, a single rubber band!!! Yet, that one went the extra mile compared to the rest.
One model, I will not detail, has scaled one of their popular models. No haters for that one I see, zero geometry changed.
Zero pruning by @MakerWorld, you would think they would put the smallest amount of effort in now so others know not to bother, saving themselves time later on.
Update
I entered one of my models. I created it before the contest started and before everyone decided a tealight holder was the only thing they could produce.
I will be honest, I am just hoping for a bump in the downloads as thus far, it has failed to attract much interest.
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In both cases, both should be kicked from the contest. I’ve seen couple that use clock components kit - they probably joined the wrong contest by accident 
Rubber band is present in the Beginner Kit - therefore it’s 100% fine and within acceptable rules.
Should be reported as re-upload of previous model, no?
They do some prunning when nudged, but seem to only prune very eggregious violations of contest rules:
Good! The rest is useless explanation/justification. Your model uses item that is in beginner kit - It’s all that’s needed. It’s all good then, you don’t need to explain yourself. So what if people make tealight holders? Make one that’s yours and it’s good.
Similar with rubber bands or magnets or whatnot. Even if your model uses say - a single D4x2 magnet - it’s fine in my book.
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That wasn’t justification. I wrote the first bit because I was annoyed.
I added the update afterwards as I decided to join the sheep.
Plus, anything to give a kick up the backside of that model set. Lots of prototypes and almost no downloads. I liked them I had hoped others would as well.
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Why won’t they accept my Arduino Uno part for Maker’s Supply? It would sell out in the blink of an eye.
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That’s not really relevant in this discussion, but I’d guess they wouldn’t turn much of a profit when selling them. I’ve also suggested numerous different microcontrollers and things with no response.
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Too expensive? Too dangerous (maybe)? Too much fun?
I have asked for Arduino in the past and have been told they are considering it.
I would recommend some of the smaller models and those clones that are significantly cheaper.
I started with the UNO and the Mega, these days I use Tiny and Seeeduinos.
My current favourite is the ESP32-C3 Mini Development Board, it has a decent price to size to I/O ratio.
I see and agree with the OT reference from @Zammer3D.
But, I’ll take any opportunity to force this argument to @Makers_Supply.
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HA I should have scrolled down, I’m over here with a calculator discovering the different conversions per product on the points shop, surprised by some. like the lamp kit which I want a couple of is cheaper buying with points vs gift cards, among others.
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you are absolutely right, I’ve also tried reporting some. But it seems that as long as it uses some parts available on the bambu store they are okay with it. It produces sales afterall. It’s not right but apparently it’s not something they care about. Will make a stink if some of those models actually win, cause that would just be wrong
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Their word is not their bond.
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Absolutely right! but I will be honest a just uploaded one as well but as a statement to show how ridiculously easy and lazy it is to create these. I even said so in the listing 
But what gets to me is that I know mine will get minimum downloads but a fact is that some with certain creator names attached will generated hundreds if not thousands of downloads and prints. And that while being almost identical…
But oh well…
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Read this, something I have written here a few times related to contest entries from data I obversed.