What I've realized as a designer is that users don't care about or notice design ... shadows, gradients, rich backgrounds, noise filters, etc. They just don't notice such things. They move so fast from page to page, all they notice is WHETHER OR NOT the page lives up to its purpose. That's the start and end of their experience and it's all over in literally a second.
Is the user expecting to read an article?
If so, then they will simply be blind to anything that isn't the title and text of the article. If they do notice something that isn't the article, you've probably intruded on their experience --- either with an ad, or a fixed element, or a sudden splash page "subscribe for more great content" ... and they don't care about the four CSS effects that will trigger on parent and child elements in your nav on :hover. They won't notice.
So get over it! Design simple pages. They'll load faster, break in fewer browsers, and probably convert users more effectively.
The site that won the competition is slick, cool, and genteel. Very effective, very appropriate for a government.