Heaven forbid that an acting award should be given to someone who acts (and surely it's about both effort and result?).
I felt that Penn's effort and result far outweighed anything put on screen by Rourke and if anyone inhabited the role it was Penn.
You don't like what Penn produced, that's fine. I did, much more so than Rourke who I didn't feel inhabited the role at all and barely put in any effort to achieve what I feel was a fairly mediocre result. Playing yourself on screen doesn't show that you inhabit the role, it shows that you don't have much in the way of acting ability.
Both Penn and Langella deserved the award IMHO over Rourke.
EDIT - it worries me that if you look at the thread, it now says Mickey Rourke was robbed by Marjangles - i can't even vote for the Oscars!