Our
wooden robot from 2009 (your long lost clone) was by far the easiest robot to build and maintain that I've ever been involved with. When I think back on the robot design that year I don't know how we would have gone about it with a different material... it wouldn't have been pretty.
You bring up a surprising point about the judges ignoring a robot with a wooden finish. We threw a few coats of Krylon spray paint on ours in 09 to make it look fairly nice, and we managed to bring home the quality award at AZ. A lot of people didn't even realize it was made of wood. I wonder if things would have turned out differently if we didn't take the time to put on some cheap paint.
(by the way, still searching for a picture of your bot this year... I didn't manage to stop by at champs!)