It seems to me Dave, that what you are saying is a picture that is NOT necessarily the best picture of the week should win because the picture that IS the best picture of the week has been posted by someone who has won before!
When it is my turn to make a selection, I go to the gallery & review the thumbnails of
EVERY image posted in the past week and enlarge all those that catch my attention & make my selection from those. To suggest that your fellow selectors do not review images that have been posted in the previous week equally when making their selection I think does them an injustice.
Of the two images you posted previously, the 4 knights is an OK shot but at the end of the day its a record shot. Compare it with this shot which won in August last year which has action & drama
Again Robski's Red Admiral, I'm sure he won't mind me saying, while not a bad shot, is not in the same class as his Orange Tip , which won in May
or his Common Blue which won in June last year
Incidentally I've gone back over the past 18 months and there are only two people who have won more times than Robski so his images are hardly going un-noticed. During that time we have had 36 different winners, with 20 of those having won just once - so its hardly the same people winning every week.
Of the four images you posted lattely, I have to agree with the comments of robski, birdsnapper & tugboat... and Night Scene by inom won POTW a couple of weeks ago (it was my selection ) so it hardly got overlooked!!!
As far as honorable mentions go - I, and a number of fellow POTW panelists, already do that, although I have to say, these are usually to images that have made it to my final 3/4 shortlist. That said, to me, the place for giving feedback and pointers to forum members to help them develop their skills, is on their images when they post in their gallery - PROVIDING they have ticked Critique Required because unsolicited feedback is sometimes not well. received