It's a very interesting question. Ironically, I suspect the judges originally thought that they were preserving authenticity. I think it was the focus on straight lines that made the biggest difference (though lines are important to traditional North West dancers as well). That seems to have led to the very slow changes between figures, which is the stylistic difference that really jumps out at me.

I'm also guessing that the judges never thought to mark the band. Somehow, the music got taken for granted, and thus changed totally.

The catch is that if you mark only on matching the past, you kill innovation.

Competition in rapper dancing (the only other form of 'morris' to have regular competitions) has been a positive influence. However, rapper had competitions historically.

Rapper is a miners dance from the NE.

I wonder if the morris men you recall were Cotswold or North West dancers.

There was certainly a time when you would see more Cotswold dancers in the North West than people doing the traditional dance from the region.

If they were dressed in white, then they were Cotswold morris dancers.

A lot of the early North West revival teams were women (Men tried to keep Cotswold male as long as possible and hence steered women towards the North West dances)