The differences among the things being judged were obvious in second case and non-existent in the first. All real judging situations fall between these two extremes. As your band goes higher in competion, all the red rubber balls or bands look more alike. It is then much harder to rank them according to any rational criteria. There is no perfect way to combine judges' scores and rankings.
Every method is a compromise.
Here is an example. Assume three judges were asked to score bands from 0 to 100. If you give 1st place to the band with the higher score then you give 2nd place to the band that 2 out of 3 judges thought should get 1st place. If you give 1st place to the band that 2 out of the 3 judges thought was the winner then you give 2nd place to the band with the higher score. If you are going to rank them, you must do one or the other.