Firstly, thank you for all you do to make this a better community.
To the questions:
I usually miss contests because I usually only look at 'What's New'.
When I do see a contest, I usually dont think of entering because
1- I am time poor
2- I am not very skilled and would expect to get few votes, which would make me sad. It is hard to 'put yourself out there'.
What would make competitions more attractive to me would be smaller items and contests not 100% based on sewing skill, such as 'design and make a block'.
To be even more demanding..... If I did enter, what I would value hugely would be a '2 compliments and a comment' system. I don't think a whole string of 'lovely work' is going to help me develop. I would love to hear 'lovely colours, good points, would be better with more contrast' or 'great contrast, cute design but the green shouts at the red a bit'.
In other words, I am looking to grow, not to win.