I had a Lichtbier get dinged for being too flavorful for the style. It medaled anyway.
I had something similar. I entered a Pale Ale, the judges commented that it pushed the limits of the style, it got a gold. This has happened several times with that beer. Brewing for commercial consumers and for competitions should be the same, but I believe that good competitors will have a strategy and changed things up a bit. Brew a little bigger to get them to stand out. If they go too big, they may get bounced.
History shows that most of the time, bigger really is better.
Same thing happened to me. I entered an American Brown Ale that I brewed to imperial strength in a competition a couple years ago, got a 43 on it, and took gold. I knew it was somewhat out of the style guidelines since it was around 8% ABV but it tasted great and I wanted feedback on it. Believe me I am not complaining here, that was the highest score I have ever received at a competition.
As a BJCP judge, sometimes because of palate fatigue, the bigger beers will definitely stand out more to a particular judge. Since judges don’t see the specifics on the beer like ABV and IBU’s (as has been mentioned), they have to go with their impression of the entry during the judging, especially when there is only 5-7 minutes to evaluate each entry in a flight.