I thought this episode was slightly better than the first one, but I agree that this one is pretty weak so far. You say "they themselves saw as subpar", did someone from KyoAni actually say that?
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-04-27/no-grand-prizes-given-for-4th-kyoto-animation-award
The official website of the anime studio Kyoto Animation announced the results of the fourth Kyoto Animation Award program on April 5. However, the studio awarded no grand prizes in any category, and no honorable mentions in the scenario or manga categories.
The judges committee thanked creators for submitting their works but said they could select no winning works in those categories after reviewing the submissions. Kyoto Animation offered 1 million-yen (about US$10,000) grand prizes and 100,000-yen (US$1,000) honorable mention prizes in this year's awards.
Novel Category
Grand Prize
No winnersHonorable Mention
Phantom World by Sōichirō Hatano
Manzai Sen ka! by Aji Miyaku
Yatara Uro Uro Mettara Doki Doki by Kōji Dōgu
That pretty much says that they weren't impressed by it (despite later then publishing it inhouse). Subpar might be a rather liberal interpretation but seeing that they don't see it as a winner is not exactly a sign of trust.
Shout by sp1tiVIP OG 13BlockedParent2016-01-13T22:16:17Z
This was really uninspired; be it comedy, fanservice or action (break, break... tune, tune, tune... bleh, bleh HHaaAAAaaA). No idea why they wanted to publish and adapt a work they themselves saw as subpar... Here is hoping that the computer device brings a decent story along with it.