The rewards involve is indeed important if you want to push thru your participation in any trading competition. Because you need to assess if it is worth your time and resources. Because when you talk about trading volume, aside from the initial funds, you need your skills and time dedicated to this event. Otherwise, don't join half-heartedly as you will only waste your effort on this.
And this must be the main reason on why we want to join a trading competition but IDK, maybe for some, their main reason is to test their skills if they are still starting and to know if they have already improved a lot. For those who are not new in trading anymore, this was like a test to tell if they still got it. Rewards are only like a bonus for them and it might not really matter if in case they did not win or if it turns out that the competition is bogus. Apart from time, you also said resources and this could mean money, right? But that was true because many trading competitions I see are not free. The rush on these types of competitions are even higher and are more rewarding once we win on them.