What is in the model is, at most a reference to a type of porn, or a specific "brand" of porn.
The model doesn't include any images of any company producing porn, nor any signs visible in the pictures available that anything sexual happened. There's no jizz on the couch, in other words. Edit: there is the sweat stain though, which could be considered a post sexual stain, despite it not being inherently sexual. My couch has an ass shaped spot if I have to sit down after a shower before dressing.
This makes the model a bit of humor, maybe satire if you want to stretch the term satire far enough.
So, if the rules don't prohibit joke models, there's nothing about the model itself that's a problem for a "family friendly" event. Which, that term is getting a little damn old at this point, since it's being used as code for anti-drag arguments as well now. Which is off topic, but you might want to know the term is being coopted by bigots so you can decide if you want to avoid it or not.
Seriously, there is nothing explicit in that model. It references porn tropes, but in a way that the only way someone would know the reference is to have either enjoyed fake casting couch porn themselves, or have run into that trope in other ways (which, let's be real, chances of it being other ways approaches zero).
No kid is going to see this model and be harmed in any way whatsoever. Any kid that would get the joke is either old enough that it isn't a problem, or has way more important issues to be addressed.
So, yeah, if you don't want to allow even the most oblique references to adult subject matter, that needs to be in the rules.
The cheek prints makes me think the judges knew exactly what was happening here since they looked at it closely enough to give it an award. More likely is that some karen made a stink and they removed it to avoid the hassle.
But the miniature in the photo has a sign that says “Please do not touch.” So if all the miniatures had a sign like that, I don’t see what the problem would have been…
Poling added that “the guys” who may have been dragged to look at the miniature displays “got to enjoy a build that was meant specifically for them, in an area they might not otherwise be entertained.”
Did they somehow not see the camera blatantly on the desk, feeding an image to the monitor, directly of the couch? Did they not see the butt imprint on the couch? Even if they didn't recognize the set it was based on, it was pretty blatant.
Well, it might have been judged by elderly Kentuckians who haven't seen porn since it was shot on film, if ever. So I don't find it surprising they went "Wow, super detailed couch! Give this guy a prize!"