The project needs to look like something, and this doesn't look like anything. Give me your honest opinion, does this look even barely close to an amusement park? No. It doesn't.
Keep in mind as well that the model shown is not the same as the final product and the idea will be refined!
Oh sure, I can just get a few parts out of my bin and throw them in a white background, and say it's something, because it isn't the final product. It's an idea, I get that, but the project needs to be less abstract and try to represent something.
To turn down this kid because 'he is not serious enough' and 'his model is garbage' is certainly not in the spirit of Lego as a brand
That is true.
and of Lego Ideas specifically.
That is not. Lego ideas is serious, it's where you pitch a project to become an actual LEGO set. There is money involved. If it's garbage, it won't make it, if it isn't taking this a little bit seriously, it won't make it.
This kid shouldn't be posting it's projects here, it should be posting them on Lego message boards, forums, clubs, getting better and better at making cool stuff with Lego, and then, when he has more experience, he should post it over to Lego ideas.
However, the
mostmore polished your idea is, the more likely it is that people will vouch for it and make it more likely to get the 10k votes needed for review: putting more effort into it yields better results.
No kidding, that's obvious. I'm not against people creating their own projects, but I'm against people submitting them to this specific platform, if it isn't good enough to at least look like a possible set. It might not be final, but it needs to look ok at least.
This isn't an idea for a set, it's a scramble of bricks, and trying to defend it will only harm the creator. The biggest crime you can commit, is telling an artist their work is good, when it isn't. He needs to improve.