Well, it's not unfair in that they are not taking sweet, unassuming cooks out of their own kitchens and subjecting them to mean circumstances -- anyone playing is pretty well aware of what they're up against.
I like a contest in which the key is their ability to shift gears in the moment, make do with adverse circumstances or reversals, and deal with the what-is rather than the what-I-want-it-to-be. I think that often points to the true skill -- having so much creativity and skill that you can pull a credible end result out of less than perfect ingredients and tools.
I think that's what some of us call "life" or "living" or "coping"