"How many reviews have you read were it takes at least 2 paragraphs for the the reviewer to actually giveI am not sure about audio journalism, but in some areas people get paid by the amount of material.
hint this article is actually audio related..."
Along with that, the magazine has to fill pages with something so a "column" needs to be a page, two, or three long. If they wrote only relevant things, whole magazine would be two pages text and 84 pages advertisement.
More than all of that, how much is there really to write in a review of an audio product? How do you describe "better" or "worse" to someone far away reading in her/his armchair? Assuming there are reviews that do say something is not good, and I have not seen one in a while.