I don't think so there were many fans who were nominating Sm. Even at ita time he managed to enter in top 5 categories than why not here.
Jitna mujhe samjh lagi hai its nothing to do with votings warna sm ita main bhi jeet jaya aur yahan bhi.
Yeah maybe the voting thing was just a distraction to keep fans busy/engaged. Bc fandoms were going to spam their posts anyway with who they wanted to win, so they figured let's make a game out of it.
I think DPIFF is probably more based on jury, but definitely the PR angle plays into it. I think that's the case with most/all awards which tbh makes it really frustrating bc when someone deserving loses it's usually not bc the other person was a stronger performer, but it's due to something that shouldn't have a bearing on celebrating their work in the first place 🤔