I guess for me the TL;DR: is
Two applications have been approved so far. One of them was approved without a scoring rubric submitted, and the comments suggest a private call happened. So not very transparent.
The other application was met with a warm response and a list of questions for them to answer, so they could be guided through the application process to success.
Our application received no relevant questions, and was denied (presumably) because the reviewers didn’t understand it. When we tried to bring to attention to the issue and ask for a second look, we were told the system is working as planned with no other assistance offered.
Three very different experiences, and the point of this thread is just to highlight the lack of consistency and transparency that so many people find frustrating.