Hi @peth , sorry to hear your frustration and apologies for not engaging on the forum before I voted. I will make a habit of doing that in the future!
I can’t speak to the Zuzalu vs MetaFest support as I joined GitcoinDAO after Zuzalu concluded and did not participate in that vote. I personally did not vote to support MetaFest as I did not believe there was clear or direct ROI to our essential intents (Allo launch & success, Program success, Passport growth.) Gitcoin is experiencing a decline in token price & impacts of a market downturn and recently cut workstream costs by 20% (Update on Gitcoin Workstreams and Budgets). Under these circumstances, I do not personally feel that we should support GCPs that do not have direct ROI towards those essential intents. Event sponsorship is very hard to directly attribute ROI in general, especially when there are not product or BD reps at the event to capture feedback or interest.
For the future, there is a forum post going up shortly that should outline some more background on this thinking, and give examples of the kinds of things that impact those EIs.