What makes an orchid hybrid "good"?

[MojoShoujo]

I had a blast at the CIOS speaker's day today but in conversations with some people I stumbled across a can of worms. Given that orchids are so diverse and wonderful, what makes one hybrid "better" than another?
The one example coming to mind is from one of the speakers' presentations on the history of green Cattleya breeding. At many points he showed two progeny from a cross and said something to the effect of "Some from this cross turned out great but others? Really bad." Many of the "really bad" ones I found lovely, and often preferred more than the "good" ones. One that sticks out was one of the 'awful' ones, that I fell in love with because the cupped petals around the curved lip gave it an almost lady-slipper appearance. It oozed more personality than the rest of the presentation put together!
I get how some things, like number of blooms and how long they last, are pretty universally preferred. But who's to say that the cupped Cattleya is any worse than the flat one? Or the little one is worse than the big one?
I tried to ask the guy I was seated next to but he wouldn't really give me an answer and I could tell it was a contentious topic. What better place for that than the Internet?