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You are getting way too caught up in height of rider vs bike size. What about measuring forearm strength of each tester? Ape index? Front/rear brake ratio preference? Hip width? Leg strenght? Weight? Courage? Their consistency of review for their career? It’s just endless. And given that the reviewers themselves have to extrapolate feelings being on a less than ideal frame size, or that they have a dodgy shock tune from factory, or that weather can change during reviews, tiredness can also…it shouldn’t be hard to imagine that, like you said yourself, shorter frames go around tight corners more easily...

Hearing that the sizing chart recommended a size too large for 4 out of 5 bikes is worth the watch alone. Hearing that there were no complaints of imbalance from short chainstays - even on the mega long Canyon - in fact, to the contrary, they made turning more whippy and manuals and pops easier, was worth the listen also. Agreed most modern bikes have too low a stack in big sizes - buy a riser bar. Still relevant for all riders for so many reasons: Kinematics, spec, geo (sta - note the slack STA on the Enduro was not...

like, I never read ski reviews of skis in longer sizes because they are like tooootally different and therefore pointless bro.. What??

agreed. the stack heights are barely any different. Doesn’t make sense how the bikes could ride anything like similarly in that config