I think when you recruit a star you want them in ridings that have above average chances of success.
Thank you for highlighting the anti-democratic way our current system operates. The NDP constitutionally gives the right to nominate candidates to the members in the riding. Who in this sentence is the "you", it certainly is not the the riding association. If the NDP wants to continue being a top down driven party it is doomed. Having puppet masters at the centre who control the party and decide not only who is a "star" but also where they should run is not my idea of a democratic party. IMO the central control during the campaign was part of the major failure. The candidates were all very scripted and thus despite the activist history of many candidates they didn't even sound passionate since they were busy making sure they stayed on message.
The party is also a collective.
A candidate on her/his own would prefer to stand in a better chance riding. I think it is the centralized parties that drove these head-to-head winner-take-all star matches not the reverse. They recruited the candidates to run like this. A more natural grass-roots derived candidates slate would be more likely to have strong candidates pick winnable ridings where they had choices (live in neighbouring ridings etc.) and their star power would given them a better chance to get the riding they want.
A more democratic -- bottom-up approach would help fix this. It is not the cause of the problem.