I saw where I'd mentioned this a few years ago in another thread that popped up recently, but when a publication produces all positive reviews, it kind of raises questions, at least in my mind. I saw where someone connected to Guitar Player said they got a lot of products in, and while they admitted that the vast majority of their reviews were very positive, they felt it was better to spend their time and their readers' times on the good products. The problem I have with that is that it raises another question - if you don't review the latest Pedaltron Awesomator 2000, is it because you didn't get one, you didn't like it, or something else?
When someone reviews a product, I tend to believe their sincerity. It wouldn't serve a publication or author good to give say a pedal gave the smoothest, most wonderful sounding distortion tone ever imagined if in reality it sounded like the Fart Pedal (a real product). And you can't review everything. And most of us can appreciate that various people have different tastes and needs. But I'd rather see the occasional bad or so-so review.