I’m not sure what you mean here by “come back”. I don’t believe we’ve ever chosen the same observation twice as observation of the day. Each week, however, one observation of the day is chosen as observation of the week and we write a blog post about it - is that what you’re referring to?
Millions of observations are posted to iNaturalist every month, and we choose 365/366 observations as observations of the day each year, which of course means there are many, many amazing observations that are never chosen as observation of the day. I’ll also note that several factors go into choosing observations. I try to keep it diverse across multiple axes (eg taxonomically, geographically), and I also try to not always choose the prettiest or most exotic photo, to emphasize that one doesn’t need expensive equipment or a large travel budget to make a cool or important observation.
There aren’t any definite criteria, it’s pretty subjective - it’s a fun way to share just a taste of what iNat is about, and no one should feel bad if an observation they think is great isn’t chosen - it’s impossible to get every cool observation out there.
Things that might boost an observation’s chances are:
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a significant documentation, like the first obs of a species posted to iNat, or a range extension, etc
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documentation of a cool or interesting behavior
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an observation from a part of the world or a taxon that’s underrepresented on iNat
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a great photo