"This is truly a shame, since I enjoyed the banter on the boards, and the ability to glean some information between the lines. I learned to take it all with a grain of salt, since it was all based on conjecture and interpretation of the news releases."

So what is the problem. What you have described is no different than shopping for flooring or a dishwasher. Someone tries to sell it to you and convince you that it's all the things they say it is and you have to weigh if they are telling the truth or are biased. Most everyone is biased so you do have to add a grain of salt. But guess what? After that you can also check out the blogs on the sites and people will give you their opinion on the dishwasher and, with different expectations, will come up with a different story than others, so you'll have to weigh things again. There are no truth machines out there, but as you say, there is a lot of valuable information to glean from. So I wonder, would people rathe be in the dark with the sharks or in the light with the sharks?