I don't believe Gene falls into these categories.
This is me coming to the defense of Gene and anyone who does honest work for a living.
I respect Gene and Audioholics, understanding that they are not a not-for-profit organization. Not only I find it fitting and more than appropriate for someone like Gene to pursue his dream and have the freedom to run his dream as a business in order to make a living, I champion it, no one should have to work for free because it's called slavery.
Because we have Amir who provides a service for free, now people are feeling entitled and expects others to do the same. Anyone who expects others to provide a service or product for free are completely and utterly delusional and entitled. I don't work for free, neither do any of you who don't already have a livable income stream. I need to pay my mortgage and save up for my kids college tuition and retirement, so do you if you don't already have a livable income stream.
Now that I got that off of my chest, back to Gene's "Stop chasing SINAD," if I am honest, yes, there is a self serving element to that, because if everyone is chasing SINAD, then his business may suffer since most of the brands who can afford to advertise with Audioholics, don't measure at SOTA. And if Gene publish the AP measurements of them, then it may negate any recommendation he may give. So when a for-profit business stack ranks products based on SINAD like ASR do, good luck getting manufacturers to send you products for review just like no manufacturers send Amir anything to review unless they already know that it measures well. And good luck getting advertisers to keep your business afloat, you might as well declare bankruptcy and close your business now.
However, Gene is right that SINAD is not the end all, be all. If it is, why is it that not every ASR member owns the Topping LA90? I'll tell you why, because the power of the LA90 is pathetic, the miniature sized form factor, resembling of a kid's toy, is not for everyone, there is no local support, reliability is questionable. Additionally, our pathetic human hearing has an audibility threshold, especially for the average age of a typical audiophile; I sincerely doubt that we can hear a difference between 110dB SINAD vs 85dB SINAD under a normal listening session when you are trying to enjoy the music.
Sure, Audioholics recommended a pair of speakers that measured less than stellar, but guess what? So did Amir with the Magicos.
Sure, James Larson has a pretty big mishap by using a load dependent amp for his speaker measurements. But if you read his review and measurements everything is done in good faith and sometimes honest mistakes are made and when that happens you fix it and it becomes a learning experience. Sure, James Larson does quasi anechoic measurements, which is not as accurate as SOTA NFS, but not everyone can afford $100k+ for an equipment, not everyone is willing to take out a mortgage to finance a NFS without a clear ROI like Erin did.
So at the end, I will continue to reference Audioholics' reviews and recommendations but with the knowledge that they are at the end of the day, a for-profit business, and to me, for-profit businesses not only is the way of life, it's a good thing.