"He should have been disqualified." Right, he was.
But if he just posted it on a "normal" contest do you think that he could say such this message?
No one would care and he would just be a random participant...
The contest wasn't whether real pictures were better than AI pictures. The point they're making is irrelevant.
This is like submitting a home made pie to a 'best restaurant pie' contest. Yeah, the home made pie might be better, but that's not the point of the competition.