I wanted to recognize that what they did was a lot of effort. Independent of success or failure, that was way more effort than they ever had to put forth, and that deserves praise, too.
Edit: I realize that without that context, a cynical reader might have interpreted my comment as, “You failed, but you tried hard.” It wasn’t meant that way. It was literally, “You tried way harder than you had to, and I appreciate that.”
I am phenomenally excited about that. I hope it becomes a universal thing.