It's a pity when speakers get trashed, but main thing is we know to avoid this one! Sometimes I wonder what speaker designers really do when all it takes is a few simple measurements to realise that this one would need to be improved in areas, unless the company in question has their own "secret sauce" of what they think makes a good speaker, but I think we've seen at least one half decent Wharfdale speaker so you'd think there's some good knowledge in the company at some point.
I'm sure this was driven by marketing and aesthetics as much or more as engineering.
Someone wanted the edge lip on a square box and a recessed vintage grill.
They wanted real wood veneer to be used.
They also wanted it to sell for $500ish and be profitable to manufacturer, distributor and retailer (despite actually using real wood veneer which adds much to the production cost.)
The manufacturer parts cost has to be @$100 or less.
The driver budget was $5 or 6 or 7 bucks using at best a $2-3 tweeter and a $4-5 woofer.(could be $1 drivers here)
The crossover budget was $5 or less.
The cabinet around $50-60 and packaging another $10.
Given those constraints it is okay. Not bad actually.
That edge is really hard to engineer a workaround(This particular grill design may mitigate some edge diffraction issues) and the directivity issue requires a better tweeter with a lower crossover point and/or a small waveguide.
Problem is folks see the $1000'retail' price and love the designer label and perceive this is a well engineered hifi design on sale for $500.
Maybe some think or hope it might even be a retro LS50meta or M105.
But it is actually a $249 Diamond 220 without the waveguide for the tweeter and a big lip for the retro grill & really nice veneer.