well, nothing is guaranteed and the contests have lots of good entries but not many of it are done at a professional level so may be worth the shot
I don't think it's pure waste
I like the idea of thinking in bets.
just to make it clear I see no big problem on commissioning someone to participate unless it's clearly against the rules
It's against the rules of the contest since it was clearly stated the you need to submit your
own art as entry for the contest but it's still up to you on how you will handle guilt since there is no way to determine if your entry is commission or not if it's done outside the forum but the stated it was forbidden.
I don't know it is really mandatory because if I am not wrong in the past members also submitted the arts created by their kids as well so its okay as long as its made not stolen from someone without giving the proper credit if the work is done by then or not but seriously anyone is hiring someone to create an art?