JRW,
No, it wouldn' t bother me as long as the rest of the competitors were adequate. Life is too short to over analyze everything, especially your successes. Too much emphasis is placed on winning in one way or another in our society. Winning and losing isn' t as much of an important to me as is competing - I' m as competative a person as you can find. The thrill of competing lasts much longer than that of simply winning for me.
In the situation you described, the person who finished first beat all who chose to compete against him. That' s it, plain and simple. If another person chose not compete and had a higher score, well too bad for them.
If I were in the other side of the situation and outscored someone in an event in which I chose not participate, I would never make the claim that I should have won. Clearly I could have, but I didn' t and trying to claim otherwise is fruitless.
Things are going to far when someone feels guilty for winning a tournament because someone else chose not to compete. The victory would only be hollow if you let it be hollow.