Do you just invite top skaters regardless of whether or not they competed in any previous Grand Prix event? Or do you invite people like Chen Hongyi, Calalang/Johnson, and Komatsubara/Koleto to this "creme of the crop" competition?
If you were trying to give examples of skaters for whom GPF would have been absolutely unthinkable in a non-pandemic season, then I do not think that Calalang/Johnson belong in that category.
I am not saying that C/J would have been a shoo-in for GPF in a normal season, but it would not have been shocking if they indeed had earned a place among the cream of the crop in a normal season.