No, the fans don't decide the official winners, just fans' choices from the top finishers participating the Gala/Free Skate programs.
Oh, okay. Inspired by your idea, instead of there being another "competition" in the gala (which could then perhaps have controversial results), perhaps allow the fans to vote in a skater into the gala who didn't qualify for it automatically. I am thinking of Johnny Weir, who didn't finish high enough to skate in the 2010 Olympics exhibitions, but fans tried to petition to have him included in the exhibition. That would be a nice way to allow fan interaction and have their contribution mean something.
Not necessarily. I think jaylee's example of the 2005 Marshall's Challenge is instructive. Even I, as a Michelle Kwan fan, cannot deny that Sasha Cohen not only skated better than Michelle Kwan at that particular event, but that Sasha arguably had better programs (hate, hate, hate Totentanz). But that certainly did not stop Michelle from crushing the competition in both rounds of voting.
I feel pretty much the same way about that, as a Michelle Kwan fan. Sigh...
Fans' choices should be respected too for what they are. If more people like what an expert or a sophisticate doesn't like, so be it. What's the harm? Could it hurt more than the current bitter disagreements over the official results? I see people still arguing over results from years or decades back.
What's the harm? Well, I found the results of NBC Olympic's "You be the Judge" app on their website for the 2010 Olympics insightful. The users were American, and they used the app to score the Olympic programs. NBC averaged the scores and posted the results.
NBC has since taken it down, but I remember being amused by what the fans had done (and hadn't). In the men's, Evan Lysacek's score went up astronomically, Plushenko finished off the podium, and Johnny Weir was on the podium (Takahashi remained, but I don't remember if he got silver or bronze). In the ladies, Yu-Na and Mao remained gold and silver medalists, but Mirai "won" the bronze. In ice dance, I think Davis/White moved ahead of Virtue/Moir, while Belbin/Agosto were in third. I think pairs was the only podium that remained unaltered by the fans (not coincidentally, pairs is the weakest discipline for the US).
I'm sure the choices of fans would have been very different had the equivalent of this app been run in Russia and Japan.