Your 'mathematics' addition really does nothing to help because your whole original point hasn't improved. There is no dishonesty involved. You've moved from the whole idea of a scam to a new argument that it's not worth entering and so that's somehow unethical. Whether it is worth it or not is up to you.
Look at it this way. You draw your own picture not as a part of a contest. There is 0% chance of any return. If you enter a picture into the contest, even at unknown odds, you have a greater than 0% chance of winning. So entering the competition is always a better return than not entering.
Whether you want to enter is your own choice and may depend on other things. If you're drawing to make money a contest (or any other game of chance) is not a good idea. If you're doing it to practice or just because you like drawing then entering is a good idea.
You talk about it obscuring probabilities but there is no evidence of that. The contest never tells you how likely you are to win and so never obscures it. It's up to you to figure out. Because people overestimate their own chances of winning doesn't make it a scam. People are subject to all sorts of illusions that they don't even know about. That's part of life. Those aren't being exploited in this case, the contest provider is just giving people an opportunity to gain something that they wouldn't otherwise have had.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Your 'mathematics' addition really does nothing to help because your whole original point hasn't improved. There is no dishonesty involved. You've moved from the whole idea of a scam to a new argument that it's not worth entering and so that's somehow unethical. Whether it is worth it or not is up to you.
Look at it this way. You draw your own picture not as a part of a contest. There is 0% chance of any return. If you enter a picture into the contest, even at unknown odds, you have a greater than 0% chance of winning. So entering the competition is always a better return than not entering.
Whether you want to enter is your own choice and may depend on other things. If you're drawing to make money a contest (or any other game of chance) is not a good idea. If you're doing it to practice or just because you like drawing then entering is a good idea.
You talk about it obscuring probabilities but there is no evidence of that. The contest never tells you how likely you are to win and so never obscures it. It's up to you to figure out. Because people overestimate their own chances of winning doesn't make it a scam. People are subject to all sorts of illusions that they don't even know about. That's part of life. Those aren't being exploited in this case, the contest provider is just giving people an opportunity to gain something that they wouldn't otherwise have had.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~