> Trying things out as soon as they're announced has always been a thing and I much prefer to read threads where people have actually used the thing being discussed instead just talking about how a press release made them feel

Reading comments by people who have used (in this threads case) Operator is different than reading comments written by Operator. You can have a preference for comments about use of the product that is the subject of a story without having a preference for comments written by the product that is the subject of a story.