IMHO ...
The challenge, as it was conducted, was more or less fair. Or at least as fair as it can be using those two baits in a stationary position.
I think the rub comes because most people don't use dead minnows, as a rule ... and only under certain circumstances use plastics w/o moving them.
Challenges like that can only be as fair as the person doing them dictates, and even then the results can vary from day to day (if not hour to hour). People will usually accept the winner in these challenges, when it's what they normally use to start with. A few may give the "other" bait a try, if they're convinced that the challenge was fair.
Also, it's almost impossible to be absolutely fair in these kinds of challenges, because where you place each bait can make a difference. It's like trying to determine which color jig to use when trolling a spread of jigs of different colors : does catching a few more on one particular color mean that's the best color, or did that color happen to be presented closest to the fish that bit it, or was it the most visible color "at that moment & under the prevailing conditions", or was that fish the most actively feeding one in the bunch ?? One has to wonder, since the other colors are also catching fish .... just maybe not as many ?? And what about the last time ... did that same color produce more fish, or was it a totally different one ?? See what I mean ??!! A fish will rarely pass by one bait to go bite on another one that's a few feet away, and if those baits are in a school of fish ... the more aggressively feeding fish in the school will usually hit the closest one to "them", not pick out their favorite color, shape, size, smell, or its movement when it's several feet away.
Just my
opinion, anyway.