Risker: it seems to me that there are two two different issues.
First, fear of criticism or controversy are not justifications for
withholding information.
That said, I tend to agree you about the privacy issue for applicants. Any
information releases should be compliant with what applicants were told at
the time that they applied, and perhaps in future years there can be more
specific considerations of what kinds of information should be released.
Perhaps not much information will be released this year if users weren't
told that the fact that they applied would be published (and my guess is
that they weren't), but perhaps in future years this can be done along with
other information that is not particularly sensitive, e.g. public
contribution histories and public roles such as board or committee
memberships.
(Note: I have not applied for a Wikimania scholarship and I don't plan to
do so in the foreseeable future.)
Pine