If I remember well, the last versions of the process presented in Paris said that auctions would only be used if all applicants were "non-community", ie generic, while if at least one was a community applicant then they would have used a beauty contest. But I'm not sure whether this is still the intention.
I expanded my note into a blog entry and got a note from someone at ICANN saying the plan is still to have a beauty contest for community-based applicants. I suppose that's slightly better. http://weblog.johnlevine.com/ICANN/icannauction.html
I already said when .xxx was on the table that IMHO there is no way that you can get out of this mess without making subjective political judgements on who "deserves better", or whether a string is "against public policy", etc.
No kidding. On the other hand, the 2000 and 2004 applicants all got expert evaluations, which for the most part the board disregarded when deciding who to approve. Isn't it nice to have the worst of both worlds? R's, John