I think the recs-before-reveals thing was born from the idea that anonymous stories would be recced only on their own merits, not because they had a popular writer's name attached to them or had been written by a friend of the reccer's. Of course there are a lot of other factors that go into recs, and someone could totally game the system if they wanted to!

P.S. Hi, just stopping by to say that I enjoyed being your writer this year. :)