Devon had great relationships with most of the jury because he played a fantastic social game and stood a solid chance to win over Chrissy had Ben not been gifted final four fire making which was not told to the contestants ahead of time.
I still think Chrissy should have won over Devon, but Ben should have either been voted out 3-1 at the final four, or the contestants should have been told about the rule change before the season started.
Edit: I don't think Ben is an undeserving winner. He played a flashy game and that is obviously fun to watch. I just think he benefitted from production meddling.
That was a fun cast. Also had Dr. Mike in there who wasn't a bad player either.
I need to go back and watch that season though it was the first one I did a huge deep dive with pre-game hours long podcasts listening to interviews with all the players. I remember before the game thinking Chrissy was going to win. She's the female version of Cochran for articulating game play.
Agree Devon got blindsided by that twist but so did Ben. Plus as they say, if you're going to go on Survivor you better know how to make a fire. Fire making challenge is sometimes used in the case of a tie as well.
I personally do not want to see the firemaking challenge because the game is now basically get to the final 4 and know how to make fire. You use a layer of strategy.
EDIT: Just read up on this and Chrissy was given an advantage of knowing about the fire challenge and told Devon and Ryan ahead of time. She selected Devon and he practiced and was able to get the flame going. Ben didn't find out until tribal. Based on that, I don't feel so bad for Devon.