Also, I have to address another topic I never got to:
That post on the last page (#238) had a lot of meat to it, YunaBliss, thank you!!! FYI, I believe
overall Yu-Na has always placed correctly at every competition she has entered in her career. There are some points to be made still about what you said, though:
Even with the fall and the popped double axel at the end (two easiest jumps in her program), Yuna still perfectly executed all of her difficult jumps, including the last triple lutz, which she often misses out on when she is tired, and objectively, as her score indicated, it was one of her better performances of Gershwin.
Using a skater's score or placement by the judges is pretty much never a valid argument for analyzing a performance. It's like saying Reese Witherspoon is a better actress then Julianne Moore because the former has won an Oscar and the latter has not. *shudder*
Yu-Na's level of performance at 2010 Worlds was her worst of the season. Her speed and edge quality in comparison to other competitions was lower and she lacked excitement in her facial expressions. When she fell on the Salchow it wasn't just a quick fall, she took a lot of time to get back up and then just stood there for several seconds after she picked herself off the ice. It was extremely detrimental to the flow of the program. And then completely popping the axel at the end and kind of ho-humming her way into the final combination spin, that too detracted from the program.
Regarding her 1st place finish in LP, I thought it validated the fact that Yuna held superior "intangible" qualities over Mao - i.e. artistry and better designed program - as far as 2009-2010 season is concerned. Yuna with two mistakes prevailing over Mao with one downgrade by a slight margin sounds just right to me, especially considering the point differential between the two at the Olympics.
The jump shouldn't have been downgraded, though. That's the problem. Here is a good video you might want to check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O6lmnzWw-8
Yu-Na Kim also received an unfair downgrade at 2010 Worlds. Her 3Flip in the short program was downgraded, but the rotation was not more than 1/4 short. Her problem with that jump was just that she landed on the inside edge of the blade. Yu-Na was placed 7th in the SP for what was definitely her worst performance
ever in a Short Program, but I actually would have had her 4th despite all the flaws. That Flip didn't deserve to be downgraded, she executed a beautiful 3Lutz-3Toe combination, and so many other competitors had problems with their programs as well.
Going back to what you said though,
"Yuna with two mistakes prevailing over Mao with one downgrade by a slight margin is correct", even if one of Mao's Triple Axles in the LP deserved to be downgraded, do you really feel it's fair that an excellent 3Axel attempt which had a solid one-foot landing should be worth 5 points less simply because it was a couple degrees short of rotation? That amount of point loss is just as high, or even higher, than falling on an element (or completely popping a Double Axel into nothing at all, as Yu-Na did). It's simply not accurate. Which is why the rule has FINALLY been changed for the upcoming season.