I would suppose that the Hugo Awards themselves are a fine example of a "fannish project". To say that the Hugos don't properly value fannish projects is thus, perhaps, a bit of a tangled proposition. But you are entirely right that a decision of this sort requires, first & foremost, a discussion of what the Hugos are meant to be, achieve, & recognize. Lately there has been, perhaps, too much emphasis on adding, shuffling, & redefining categories without enough consideration of that top-level question. I suspect, however, it may not be one that people want to touch. Supposing a general reluctance to open the can of worms, a simple resource-distribution approach, leaving many people at least mildly irritated, is the only feasible one.