I have judged in science fairs and downgraded projects for reasons similar
(not identical) to ones being castigated here. I down graded projects that
were along the lines of "build a kit". While it quite likely was a
beneficial and worthwhile to the student who did it, and I'm sure they
learned a lot; I'm not sure it is quite in the spirit of "event a method of
investigation that tries to answer a question", which I think is more
properly the venue of a "science" project. I didn't require that it have to
be written up in "hypothesis" format. But I did feel that it should involve
some sort of data taking that helps to answer some sort of question (or even
hypothesis). I.e. the idea of observation and data taking for a directed
purpose.
This means I didn't grade highly the traditional build an electric motor
type projects.
I don't think these projects should be viewed as not having any parameters
at all and anything goes as long as it is educational. Perhaps the student
who wants to learn more about transistors by building an electronic device
should be allowed to do so as an alternative to doing the science fair
"science project".