Regarding the bolded, first, you don't know the reason, don't pretend like you do. You can't say what they were thinking and neither can I. What we do know, the girls that voted for Nicole to win said they wanted a girl to win. It was 5-4 vote. Da'vonne was really the swing vote. She was team Paul the whole time but admitted in the post finale interview she voted for Nicole so a girl would win. He should have addressed that but didn't. It probably wouldn't have helped anyway. Sorry.
In season 19, during the final questions from the jury, Paul failed to take responsibility for getting the jury members evicted. They wanted him to admit it but he wouldn't own it. They didn't leave mad at Paul but figured out what happened at the jury house. Another 5-4 vote that came down to Cody, who hated Paul from the jump, and Alex, who was all about Paul until he fucked her over. Your horse didn't win and you're upset.
We covered this last year so that's all I will say on the matter. Let's see what happens this year.