I totally agree, but I bet it changed because the Old Way is worse from the perspective of Threadless. Specifically, each contest needs to result in a shirt that they can sell more and more of in order to maintain growth. That pushes you toward a bland, inoffensive, mass-market design. They think they can ultimately maximize profits by doing the etsy/cafepress model, where it's loads of vendors on the ground doing their own thing, and the marketplace supplier just floats above the fray collecting a slice every time money changes hands.