Well, but who wins isn't really the point now, is it? This is the same in any competition (hopefully) otherwise you could simply buy yourself a championship. No, I have never competed in a cutting competition. But in other sports events I have. In cycling the bike is less that 40% for sure, in running, the shoes are much less than 40%, in inline skating/ice skating, the boots are less than 40%. But still, any experienced athlete can tell immediately which setup works, and which doesn't....whether he wins that day or not. And even if you look at different athletes the setups are different of course, because not every setup works for every athlete, something that a machine will have a difficult time to access (A stronger man may prefer a slightly heavy blade, while a lighter person preferes a lighter, maybe, I don't know), but even with the variations among the preferences a general trend should emerge. You will never see someone competing in the tour de france on a mountain bike. Heck, they all even use time-trial bikes for that specific even and all time trial bikes have certain features in common. You never see a NASCAR race with a car toed the "wrong" direction, you will never see a marathon runner in a pair of Timberlands and a speed skater wouldn't wear figure skating boots. So by the same token, I would imagine that certain characteristics would also emerge for a cutting competion (in particular rope cutting) knife. And all that without a machine.
Of course the above comparisons are intentionally crude, in real competions the setups are very much alike. In speed skating they may argue about 0.5" ankle hight and about a few degrees by which the blade should be toed in. But for someone not competing at this level they all use essentially the same gear. So I would imagine in cutting competition that there will always be an argument, for example where exactly the balance point should be, aswell as about a few degrees and thousands of an inche of edge angle and edge thickness respectively, but again, I would imagine that a general trend should become quite clear.
As a matter of fact, the more I think about it the less I become convinced about the merit of a machine. As Sal said only if you take the both the competitor and the tool (knife, bike, car you name it) you have a competition. A machine will always lack that interface.
