Nevertheless, it sold off the charts. The answer to the last question is yes, but with an asterisk. By this definition the 19th Amendment stamp was a bad design. Not at all. The committee should encourage artists to take more risks, not fewer, but either the designers or the committee should test the risky designs before releasing them to the public.
Testing is the easiest way to preview the success or failure of a risky design.
In effect, it removes the risk. A late-inning game winner. Now think big. Commercial design in a capitalistic culture, like it or not, is driven more by the tastes of the target audience than by art-school theories or annual awards. In the case of official state design, the entire population is the target audience.