I want to comment your 3 points:it was to me psusanne. I remembered how stellar she was before her retirement... even in 1988, she was being outskated technically... but still was able to hold on to gold by a system that was going to change drastically.... and when she came back in 1994, with barely only 2 triple jumps in her arsenal, it was to me, embarrassing on multiple levels... 1) she was not even the top ranked of her own country. 2) she was held up by the judges 3) even if we forgive her for lack of technical content, the performances themselves weren't fabulous.
That's what I mean
1) isn't embarrassing. Happens all the time. I'm sure f.e. Mao wouldn't embarrass herself this season if Satako would beat her this year at Japan Nationals.
2) maybe, but is it embarrassing for Katarina? No.
3) Well, it's not that everyone was doing 3Lz-3T back then, more like 3Lz-2T in the short, she did a 3T-2T. And yes, she doubled a couple of her triples in the long, but who cares? She knew before that she wouldn't win a medal and her performance level NEVER dropped. The crowd seemed to be very pleased, that must count for something.
I don't care much about shows, I like watching competitions. It's something about seeing an athlete trying to do his/her absolute best.