I think consumers are as confused as ever and are looking for a way to cut through the marketing clutter without feeling like they're about to make a mistake. That's where some sort of rating site would be of value.
A KEF LS50 gets a 4.6 Olive score, good enough to be a Stereophile Class A (restricted LF) recommended component, which would also mean than an Apple HomePod (Olive score = 5.0, rtings music score = 7.0, Sound & Vision = 4.5 stars) would also be a Class A component once Apple plays the “Sure, we’ll review one of your components if you buy $100,000 of advertising from us in 2022” game.
What’s uncomfortable for many in the hifi community is when the soundbars are scoring highly. A Bose 900 soundbar with 700 Sub has an rtings music score in the 8’s, makes the value proposition of separates questionable to the average consumer (though you and I know what they are: better channel separation, no wireless signal dropouts, greater power handling and SPL, future upgradability, potentially better active EQ room calibration, no fake channels bounced off the ceiling, etc).
