That is better decision than opening vacancies again and making users go through tension and you go through stress of selection.
it seems like every time someone applies, they get so stressed out that they take them to the hospital. 
I guess you are trying to crack us up there
There is nothing good about this and I hope that other campaigns will not follow such decisions, but will open slots all the time.
Am sure Bestchange went through the posts of those runners up and picked from the active ones amongst them. He could not have just picked them blindly like that without a fresh review.
It turns out that if all campaigns choose from old applications, then who will accept new ones? If the Gamdom campaign ends, and all the managers, as you write, follow the example of choosing participants from among the old applications, then where will you go? Will you wait only for new campaigns?
I have seen campaigns which ended suddenly giving privilege to old members to get back into campaigns before opening it up to the public.