The shitstorm of a fallout has pushed the community behind Billet Labs more than they ever would have gotten had they just gotten reviewed properly. It may have sucked what had happened but I think they will be better off in the long term now that people are aggressively supportive of them. Funny twist of fate in my opinion.
Yet there will still be people that will want the best of the best cooling regardless of how overpriced it is. As ridiculous as it is, he should have given it a fair chance.
LTT prides itself on reliability of testing and so when they aren’t willing to go the extra mile to do it correctly, it upsets people. No matter how ridiculous the product is.
Products that are obviously scams or ewaste don’t need the full testing treatment, but this is a real product that has a real use for those that have desire for it.
Ultimately it hurts a small company’s reputation when they didn’t deserve it.
Now you (and GN) have to decide… Either Linus is supposed to give his take and opinion on items they review without any regard to relationships or are they supposed to give this product preferential treatment because of who produced it?
While GN is certainly right in several points (and LMGs selling of the prototype was a really bad oversight for which they need to pay), Linus take from "no cooling performance is worth it at this price point and nobody should buy this) is his opinion and it is not without reason or logic. And GN tells him 5 minutes earlier to do exactly that - give his opinion and take without regard to others, the community or the producers of the products in the name of “journalistic integrity”.
it’s just not coherent.
when Nvidia releases a new Titan6001 (or whatever) his opinion is usually something like “(massively) overpriced, but the best performance out there”, usually without even offering better bang for your buck options.