As he said, wondering why an avadhAni's skill hasn't produced a
memorable piece of work, is asking the wrong question. Even more
than apples and oranges, the difference may be that between a five-star
hotel and road-side mirapakAya bajjee stand!
Both have their place, but would not be compared with each other.
Having attended about half-a-dozen or more of these avadhAnas in the
past that many years, I came away each time with a little less wonder.
SLowly you begin to see patterns in the ways the "problems" are
tackled, the easy compromising nature of the pRcchakas, and the
audience (we go a bit out of our way to accommodate the avadhAni,
partly out of courtesy, and partly out of fear).
However, just as extemporaneous speech is not as polished as that
carefully crafted in several sittings (as is this note!, no I don't
mean this is 'crafted'), one should not expect great poetry at
avadhAnams. The idea is to test the quick wit, poetical skills,
memory, command of vocabulary; a test of poetical maturity it is not.
People who frequent a fast-food place ought not to criticize
its fare from a nutritional perspective.
Ramakrishna
PS: The comparisons to gymnastics, and fast-food are quite appropriate
to this prakriya. To paraphrase Aravinda's quote on another topic,
you can expect poetry (or food) to be good, cheap, and fast; but alas,
you only can ask for two of those at any one time.