We took a problem, designed an internal tool for it, and put some Bootstrap UI on top with some fancy CSS animations.
After wiring up the mock data, it looked convincigly real.
We did win, got congratulated by upper management, and were immediately asked if we could get this into production in a week, or do we need 2?
Oh, and don't get me started on the fact that a lot of developers get two relaxed fun days while with catering, networking and basically paid for self-improvement workdays, while QA, supports and other teams are expected to work as usual AND cheer for those participating and watch presentations (thankfully that last is optional).
"-thons" aren't contests, at least not in the traditional sense, they are activities where participants test the limits of their endurance. A marathon, for example, allows runners to see how far they can push themselves running. Likewise, a hackathon gives a place for one to see how far they can push themselves to create something over a short amount of time, beyond what would normally be possible, and beyond what would be sustainable in an everyday setting. I suppose you could argue that it is contest with yourself, but calling that a contest is atypical.
You are right to call out that few people want to push themselves to their limits for a corporate event, so corporate entities have turned to contests instead to try and find something that does appeal, but a contest, no matter how it is conducted, is outside of the spirit of a hackathon.
It is also viable for a sales pitch competition to take place at the same time as a hackathon. When we look past the early hackathon days, we can observe a trend towards events hosting both. Similar to marathon/races, appealing to a wider audience helps with logistics. Maybe that is where things get confusing?
Perhaps this is easier for you to reason about with a telethon? Rarely do we find a competitive element show up as being an objective of the event in that setting. Only the endurance component, where telephone operators push themselves to answer phones for periods of time beyond what would be considered normal.
Hackatons are commonly used as a way to take credit for & reap the benefits of another person or team's work, without attribution or compensation. And oftentimes, a promising hackathon idea will be "improved" by management & added to the creator's workload with tight deadlines (because the hard part is already done!) -- even if they don't necessarily agree with the "improvements".
It's also funny to me because of how they try to show its a treat to the engineering staff, and then railroad them as soon as they can to implement the half baked idea.
The truth is that most management don't ever get beyond half baked ideas and so trying to push you to make low quality crap is often their only move.
Imo if you don't do stuff others dont you wont end up in places others dont, which might be good or bad.
I mean, one of the biggest raises I got was when I brought my dog to the company cookout, and it turned out my boss's boss was a huge dog person, and we bonded over that, and he decided I was a good guy, which was kinda ironic as I was working my arse off to little benefit at that time.