But that is exactly my point, and also answers Alexx' point about referees in baseball. Sure, you can be wrong about which person touched the base first, but the criterion is perfectly clear. I would posit that as the difference between a judge and a referee. And I think there is a clear line: if you are making qualitative differentiations between competitors, you are adjudicating an artistic competition, and if you are making quantitative differentiations you are refereeing a sport. There are certainly corner cases. And it is definitely true that there are efforts to make the qualification more of a quantification in many fields, including skating (and, as you say, with very little positive effect...teaching).