by Charles Steinhardt and Palmer Mebane

First, solve the picross, finding a 93-square loop:

The 93 letters, reading clockwise from the red A, can be thought of as scrabble tiles drawn from a bag, and if so, the highest-scoring plays all fall within the outlined loop on the 15x15 board:

AMPQHRE   - HAMPER
(Q)UUVWYA - QUA
(UVWY)IAY - WAVY
(UIY)LMLT - MULTIPLY
HBBAURS   - RHUBARBS
KREEJEE   - JEE
(KREE)EED - JERKED
(EE)RUOAR - URARE
(EO)WRLOT - KOTOWER
(L)GALNOE - ALLONGE
VIFIIGZ   - FRIZ
(VIIG)A?G - GInGIVA
(G)OOCEDO - COED
(GOO)ONTI - FOOTING
(O)FNTTXO - FOX
(ONTT)IAI - TITIAN
(O)EINNDE - IODINE
(NE)AISNT - INSANE
(NT)      - TAG
(N)       - NO

Where there are multiple plays yielding an identical optimal score, the shape of the loop is used to break the degeneracy. The final board is:
.

This leaves seven tiles in the bag. The unique best play with those seven tiles is along the third row, DECOMPRESSOR, which is the answer to the puzzle.