I could be entirely wrong here, but I suspect the nominating committee tried to diversify the nominee slate based on multiple factors, cost likely being one of them. There’s always a big deal made over the cheapest 1 Michelin star restaurant in the world (I was lucky enough to go to Tim Wo Han in Hong Kong when it held the title) — it’s possible that was in their mind when making some of these choices. No disrespect meant toward Ekiben, just to be clear.