Adam,
First I want to say I don't get you wrong and I think I understand what you say.
I think the main thing is that the contest was a video contest, and not a live contest. You may have won if it was a live performance in front of judges, showing your skills. But as you said, the contest was a video, meant to be original and creative. I really liked some moves in your video, but that's true as people said the video was very long; and you don't watch very closely until the end.
I think a Cardistry video deserves more than just showing your skills in front of your webcam (I don't say that for you of course but for everybody). In your video you "took us with you on your day in the city", and that could have been an entertaining way if the video wasn't too long.
Cardistry has evolved since the beginning and I think now it's time to realize that if we want flourishes videos to be appreciated by the most, we have to present flourishes in an entertaining way. You talk about de'vo and big cloaks, and "underground and mysterious" things ; I don't really understand, as we didn't wear big cloaks in F501 and we didn't pretend to be "mysterious and underground". And no, wearing black cloaks is not "the cool thing to do at that time".
XCM videos with black backgrounds are in my opinion a different thing, and it can be entertaining if moves are eye-candy and visual. But our style is totally different. The thing which made our video more "captivating" I think is the setting, the realization, the cinematography. In my opinion Cinematography and Cardistry work flawlessly together, and I know lots of peope who love both films (or even making films) AND Cardistry. This is what our team Scenacle is all about, we'll make more movie projects in the future. I hope we inspired people to put efforts in the way they present their flourishes. We'll see more and more diversity and we'll discover new "styles", new ideas for videos.
Adam, keep your style. I love seeing you jamming with your friends and performing awesome moves. This is YOUR style, and people like it. The few problems in your video was the length, and maybe a bit the lack of serious for a contest. Don't get me wrong, I laughed...
I hope you don't see any offense in my post. Let me tell you again that I liked your video and, as many people I guess, it made me wish to be there jamming with you.