Your Grace, Twenty five years ago I would have agreed with you. Fifteen years ago I wouldn't have dared say I was uncomfortable with the idea. Ten years ago I got fed up with the magic and began to see only prestidigitation and foolery. Now I have to work hard to remember what the Magic was like. Tournaments are a wonderful way to choose a Queen of Love and Beauty.
Tournaments are a lousy way to choose a powerful, sought-after, and influential office.
But you can't teach the joys of Allah or the excitement of Freya or the peace of Jesus to an unbeliever by just describing to him how wonderful the whole thing is. I wish that kings and queens and tournaments were magic again, and that officers for the SCA were chosen by some other method.