I agree.
Back in the day, I used PhoneScoop daily and was a member of HowardForums. Both suck now just like PhoneArena. Now I use GSMArena for my daily phone news and AT do have the most concise reviews.
I dont really like David Pierce from The Verge. He seems like an Apple fanboy all the way. He gave a nice review of the HTC One but simply loathed at Samsung Galaxy S4's plastic like that was the only thing important to him. I do like Josh Topolsky and his wit and his chemistry with Matias Duarte (ex-Palm/current Google employee).
I'm starting to like video reviews from Android Authority and other Android-centric sites as they are surprisingly are not biased toward any Android OEM and very objective when they need to.
I agree with you on David's S4 take. He came off sounding very capricious regarding the plastic material. I don't mind The Verge and their reviewers, it's just that after reading reviews on GSM Arena and AnandTech it's obvious that The Verge is far more subjective than scientific. As I said earlier; when it comes to product reviews they're the minor league.
This got me thinking about the never-ending discusision of plasticky materials vs. metal or some other premium construction. Most people I see with phones have them in plastic cases; that includes the overwhelming majority of "premium" built devices like iPhones, HTC Ones, Lumias, and Sony's Z1. I'm all for top-notch materials, however, I do realize that my phone (and most of the phone buying public's) will end up in a plastic shell.
On one level I should be grateful, how else would we get all of those Jony Ive parodies on YouTube?