[Jemaclus]

Well, the explicit goal of NaNoWriMo is word count, not quality. You aren't wrong in your analysis, but NaNoWriMo is not the event through which you write complex stories and spend a ton of time thinking about each scene. It's pretty explicitly for plowing through as many words as possible in 30 days.

An analogy I would make is that a marathon is measured as 26.2 miles. It's not measured in minutes or hours -- it's not the 2:30 run, for example. The standard of success is measured in miles, not minutes. Similarly, NaNoWriMo is measured in words, not quality or twists or ready-to-be-published state.

You are right, though. It's good motivation. I've finished every year for 10 years, but I've never gotten anything to a state I would consider to be even remotely publishable. :)