Growing conditions really matter. We really like Gold Rush apples and our farmers market has three orchards who grow them but the ones from one of those vendors consistently aren’t as good, even though it’s clearly the same variety. Something about Pennsylvania vs. northern Maryland made more of a difference than I thought.

Bought some Gold Rush apples for the first time yesterday (South Mountain, PA) and really liked them - crunchy, tart, and spicy.

Yeah, it goes completely against my taste (and maybe against how apples are over here)? I had only delicious Fuji apples for example, from consistency to taste (if you like sweet at least), which the site describes as utterly awful. Especially the local ones are awesome. Incomprehensible ranking for me.

Its worse offense is not even mentioning many very good European apples like Cox Pippin or Mingan. Is just a list of commercial apples, many of then unknown or ignored in Europe.

Why is it an offense for an American to write about the apples available in their market?

Not her offense, "its" offense, The worst offense from the "list of best apples" is that is clearly biased and omits some very good varieties that are well known.