Yea, this is one of those subjects that comes up from time to time. It takes a slightly different mindset to get used to using folders instead, but the adjustment isn't usually too painful
Actually, I hadn't even looked at the site previously. As soon as I saw the sub in my review admin, I declined the site. Again, that's a pretty standard response for site reviewers as it's an instant decline...no need to look further and time is $$$ as they say.
However, I just went back into my review admin and pulled the site up
A couple things jump out...
Slightly different free site structure...no biggie...I'd still list it.
Your full size images are HUGE at 300k or more. They certainly look pretty, but dial up surfers arent' gonna wait around for those to load. A lot of lists will decline for images that big. Try to keep them between 40-70k or so...even up to 80k if absolutely necessary to keep the image quality good. Personally, I'd probably still list the site even with the large image sizes.
Interesting recip locations too...used to see more people scatter them throughout the site, but haven't seen that used in a long time. Honestly, I'm not sure what to think of that one as I have no idea why free site builders stopped using that methodology.
I'm hoping some other site owners will give us some feedback on scattering the recips around like that...I'd like to see some other opinions.
At first blush, don't think I would decline a site for it...though it does make the site a bit uglier...no offense intended
So, the short answer is...yea, it was the sub-domain that got you declined