The criteria are what the criteria are. Vincent should be on the team.
Now, I love 'First three only" because it is so certain, and easy, and I remember Nats as the Olympic trials and I like what I remember.

But that's not what USFS did. And fairness to the athletes dictates going by what USFS did.
If someone wants to say, I think the criteria didn't yield the best athlete, that's another argument. But to argue the criteria could have gone either way? So that's why I keep coming back to this thread, despite my better judgment.
I really am not understanding this.
"Competitiveness" is not, you're in a priority group, OK, that does it for competitiveness, let's go to other criteria.
It is also from my reading used to rank within the priority group:
Analyzing the competitiveness and consistency of the international scores from the identified events (1.2.1.) to differentiate the athlete’s/team’s body of work will be used to rank the athletes/teams within their priority groups. ETA: Now maybe it's just my training, but to me that language means that competitiveness continues to be used after a priority group is attained. It would not make sense, using USFS's own criteria, to say Jason and Ilia are equally competitive. I never thought of looking at it otherwise.
Competitiveness: Jason
Consistency: Jason
Trending upwards: Actually I would rank Jason higher, because the only reason Ilia had such a leap upwards was his inconsistency in the previous comps, but I understand there is an argument for Ilia.
So Jason is ranked higher within the priority group. Among other considerations, Nats is a wash, as Jason placed 3rd vs. W/D and 4th vs. 2nd (Placements, not scores, are used). Worlds, Jason is higher.
I do not see an equal argument under the criteria for both, which is probably why the selection committee took less than 40 minutes to make a decision.
And I also admit, I'll go with the analysis from the Wharton MBA (Jackie), and if he says it's clear, it's clear

ETA: I need to show respect to my alma mater, not that I went anywhere near Wharton. But they do know how to crunch numbers.