Personally, it doesn't bother me in the slightest if a base in the contest was at some point worked on by a judge. If they worked hard on it, then they deserve that recognition. I really liked many bases for their ingenuity, and creativity. Some of them inspired me to do better on my own. I voted for Vaultluxe because I thought it was masterful, regardless of who built it.
I appreciate that the judges narrowed down the choices, because there is no way I could look at 70+ bases and spend the amount of time I took on each CC contestant. At the end of the day, community choice is chosen by us and not the judges and I think its completely fair if a judges base gets picked.