If NIST pick just one and they later find a issue via research in that one solution then the whole standard is dust and if SH3 becomes no more. If they pick more than one as I said all of them for example then if one of those vatriations is found to be flawed later on then that subset can be dust and the SH3 standard and implementation can carry on moving on without have the issue of suddenly having nothing to fallback upon. Sure there are other standards that currently can be fallen back upon but if some kit supports SH3 only then with SH3 having variations as a standard can only be better thing than not. These finalists have been tested alot already, more so than previous so it is not a case of making it up appraoch at all, they would of had to pass alot of standard/hurdles to get this far. But what I'm saying is if they all pass all the tests then picking a winner gets down to other nuances and the abilty to have more than one winner add's more rubustness to the standard in that any single solution found later on to have a flaw would negate the whole standard as apposed to a subsection of it by having more than one option, hence the SH3.n.

That all said if everybody agreed on everything then life as we know it would be boring and we would all be fighting over the same women at some stage, which would not work out well.