You can blame Apple. Apple used to have a press office that made review materials available to a much wider array of journalists and personalities. That shifted in the last few years to seeking "relationships" with only key influencers as a way to essentially manage the reviews they get, like a politician who chooses to only talk to certain friendly reporters. There are exceptions—MKBHD has a large enough audience that he can balance fair criticisms against the control-freak tendencies of a company like Apple. But anyone else knows to either toe the line and embrace the relationship by speaking only to the faithful (iJustine in particular has given some really illluminating interviews about the "role" she plays to satisfy an Apple user audience that "struggles to see criticism as anything but an attack"), or buy the product themselves on the open market, speak more freely (and run the risk of having press credentials conveniently not offered to the next keynote speak), but give up the chance to have a video ready prior to release.
Apple is obsessive about not liking reviews without guardrails, and they were doubly so with AVP reviews. Makes me wonder what their own confidence is in the product.