Best I can tell, most online camera reviews are written by technophile hobbyists that spend their time posting to forums and viewing the corners of photos of brick walls at 100% magnification, not photographers out making striking photos. For example, compare this review of the Olympus E-3 by a working photographer with this one on a major review site and this one of the Leica M8 by an Iraq war correspondent with this one by the same review site. Note that the photographers focus on how the camera does (or doesn’t) deliver the goods under challenging conditions and time pressure while the hobbyist reviewers present pages of specifications, 100% crops of test images that nobody in their right mind would realistically photograph, and sample images I’d be embarrassed to associate with my name. Would you seriously take advice from a photographer willing to admit taking such uniformly awful photos?
Another example is that same site’s review of the Nikon’s 70–200 f/2.8 VR, in which they slam its performance on FX sensors due to soft corners. I photographed two weddings with a borrowed copy of this lens on my D700 before I could track down and purchase my own copy. I then shot well over 2500 frames with it in the subsequent month. I’m happy to say that it performs like a champ in real-world photographic situations. Other than my Speed Graphic, it's the most solidly built piece of camera equipment I've ever owned and it has incredibly fast, silent AF with instant manual override. The VR works like a charm, it's fine at f/2.8, sharpens up even more when stopped down, and delivers buttery smooth backgrounds. Yes, the corners turn to mush, but I don’t compose images with critical details in the corners and they’re out of focus anyway, so it’s of no practical concern. Yes, the soft corners are a problem when shooting landscapes off a tripod, but then you should be using a more suitable lens (Nikon’s 70–300 f/4.5–5.6 VR works great and is easier to carry) or a large-format camera. Or just crop off the objectionable portions. You're likely do this anyway to print 2:3 aspect frames on standard paper sizes like 16x20.
Who is worth reading for DSLR reviews? People that make pictures you admire and aren’t paid to push some manufacturer's stuff.