I also am inclined to leave bad reviews for failures, but don't take the time to write a review if it is as described.
On that youtube video, some of the polls were how many motors were replaced under warranty, or were otherwise replaced. That is a much more accurate way to do an analysis. I can imagine a lot of people write reviews on e-bikes complaining they wanted more speed and more acceleration and more range, such reviews mean little. But a motor replacement is only done when needed.
I usually look at the 1 or 2 star reviews first, and I take into account how prevalent those poor reviews were, e.g., were the ones and twos 5 percent of the total or 45 percent of the total. Sometimes I was inclined to order something on line, but after reading some of the poor reviews if there were a lot of them, and if they were for the same manufacturing defect, I suddenly decide that I really don't need that item after all.
One of my neighbors is a bike mechanic at a bike shop on a large university campus. He said most people on campus that bring in an e-bike for some reason or other has clearly just left it in the highest gear on derailleur bikes. They get on the bike and aim for maximum motor assist with the least amount of pedaling effort.
