[panick21_]

> That's more or less true though?

No it isn't. It was done correctly in this case. But if you study the history of NASA and DoD contracting the idea that they always perfectly evaluate is nonsense.

Literally during the very selection process you talk about, a NASA employ was fired because he tried to give Boeing an unfair advantage. How many times in history was this not caught?

Often the selection documents aren't public. The idea that lobbying and politics have no influence of government selection is just being naive.

Just recently in commercial Crew Starliner was selected over Dreamchaser. Despite Dreamchaser being considerably cheaper, and offering much more utility. NASA just assumed that Starliner would be done fast because it was Boeing. The reality many believe without Boeing CommercialCrew would have failed.

We can go threw history, as far back as you like. The Supersonic transport, you basically had Boeing proposing an absurdly complex incredibly ambitious design, despite being the company with the least amount of experience. They were selected despite the other projects being much more reasonable and much cheaper.