I'm not even a Maa-chan fan, but let me tell you this.
Regarding the most hyped songs, there were at least 3 hyped song besides Crazy heart's performances: Ayumin group's How do you like Japan, Ayacho group's Robokiss, or Eripon group's Onaji jikyuu. Ayumin and Murotan really rocked in that performance. Unfortunately, Maa-chan did even better.
Regarding popularity, it is one of the factors affecting winning outcomes. However, had Maa-chan's performing ability been low, she'd never been voted as a winner. Fans are biased, but they are not that blind and deaf.
Regarding skill levels, Maa-chan never tops that category. For singing, Sakura, Sayubee and Ruru almost always top based on some polls, mostly H!P polls (not even Karin). However, the key factor that leads to successful performance is the use whatever the girls have to execute good performance, and the skill to make fans hyped and crazy. She even knew how to use Saorin, whose performance level is not at the top. I refer that skill as "the ability to command music". Up until now, besides Maa-chan, in my opinion, Karin is the other member who has it.
Popularity, the hype of performances, performing levels and "the ability to command music", all of them affect the outcomes. Maa-chan's winning required all of them, in an unknown formula. Watch the Kenshuusei shindan test once and you'll see how even the best performer didn't get the fan award.
Now's the second thing. Neither fan-based votes nor member-based votes are free of bias. Come on, idols are not music experts. If you want more objective votes, you need experts such as judges for Kenshuusei shindan test, or at least ex-idols who had tons of experiences related to performances such as Takahashi Ai or Shimizu Saki.
