heh. this is probably the wrong place to have this conversation, but when has that ever stopped anyone?!?
Seeing a story like Blink perform way better than Esper's tears is very interesting, in a detached pov. I would generally not expect it. I'd think Blink too gloomy, too hopeless, and the magical eyes quite hard to explain in a short time, yet it must have been better done than my choppy telling of an esper urchin's meltdown.
i dunno if it was the quality of the storytelling more than the story concept itself. i can't speak for everyone, but i can say for me, esper's tears felt like a very well-trodden blade runner concept with some story depth behind it. blink was less about the story, and more about the "what if" factor. i know i had one of those "oh shit! that's cool!" moments when i read it.
Being on the contest for 2 years has to have served a purpose, and I think the main point here is to help discover what I do best, what I like best. Things like how cool and powerful present tense is to me, and learning that dark stories fit me best is part of that process.
I'm not angry or disappointed about it. Tbh I thought Rukaio would win this month, because his story was so flawless, and that Tebakutis or Jmack would be second. But I thought making efforts toward good endings would glean more votes, the fact that it gleans less is almost a happy revelation. 
yeah. i agree with all of this. (well, except for thinking rukaio would win, tho, his story was my favorite not written by me.) after my 20-stories-entered-in-a-row, i've decided we're a really eclectic group of readers. like, REALLY, REALLY eclectic.
there's no such thing as writing a story to please all of us.
right? think about it. we each had four votes and 24 people voted. yet, out of 96 total votes, jmack only got 9.
or, sliced another way, with four votes, each person can choose nearly a full quarter of the stories as worth a vote. even with that huge window of voting opportunity, only 37% of our voters chose his story as being in the top quarter of the bunch.
what i'm saying is, as an author, we've got just about as many varied tastes to satisfy as there are voters.
as best i can tell, your story needs at least one of these key ingredients to succeed:
1) be super-interesting in concept
2) be super-entertaining to read
ha!
i know, huge revelations, right?