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I still find it hard to believe the people in the top 10 aren't all at the theoretical limit of predictive accuracy with their final order being determined by nuances in the experimental design (things like how the raw data was collected).

Which would be the sort of thing statisticians live with all the time, except that Kaggle then makes it winner take all.

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That certainly does happen - indeed our tag line is "making data science a sport"... Like in all sports, there can be a stochastic element to who ends up winning!

However, in private competitions (which is where the money is!) everyone selected to participate wins something. It's more like golf - make the cut, and you'll definitely make a few dollars, but the winner will take home the biggest prize.

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