The word the best fits the blank above is COMMITMENT. This is based on the Triarchic Theory of Love by Robert J. Sternberg. According to him, the purpose of maintaining the relationship despite having problems based on the cognitive judgment of the relationship is called commitment. Being committed means you stay no matter what any obstacle or external variable may come.
Noun clauses are dependent clauses and can serve the role of the subject in a sentence. In this cause, the noun clause is "whomever wins the Spirit Award". The person winning the spirit award is doing an action, so they are the subject of the sentence.
The outcome of a poorly written subject line would be that the reader wouldn't understand what he/she was reading about. This would in turn, keep the reader confused the rest of the literature and wouldn't be able to focus.
