AE is popular? Awesome! xD I was still under the impression we were quite small, niche and under the radar xD (apart from the Rome 2 mod I guess but I dont count that as AE its more DeI than anything else). In any case of course people want to get awards, they put a lot of effort in and would like to see some payback for what they are doing. Just be thankful any of us get awards, don't know many other game companies that give awards to modders or appreciate them as much (maybe skyrim and such?)...
Also just a huge thanks and support to everyone making overhauls, large mods or even small ones for Attila. The modding community seems to have abandoned Attila and its kinda disconcerting to be working on it almost alone (compared to Rome 2 at least), so thanks and good luck with your mods I'm sure together we can get Attila to be a game the community actually wants to play!