One of the problems i had was the judging staff acted condescending towards me when I had survival of the fittest on the board that was partially covering a root maze. He asked if there was a specific reason that my SotF covered the maze, with my response being no, he informed me that I needed to have every single card seperate unless they were the same card. I wanted to say "oh my bad I didn't know this was sanctioned, and that it was ok for you to be a dick." but I didn't.
You may not have been doing anything shady, but plenty of people in the past have done/tried stuff like that, so don't be too hard on the judge - he was just doing his job and making sure things were done properly so there would be no questions or issues later on. I wouldn't take it as him being a dick, but just doing his judging duties and keeping things according to the rules...