I gotta agree with a lot of your points B. Leighty.
I never read magazines in terms of getting any value out of the reviews either.

I also agree, different areas have different needs from a kite quiver.
Do we EVER get solid 20 in St. Pete for 3 hours straight? NOT!
Also, we get a lot of days in the 13 to 17 knot range, while also getting some really strong NWs commonly going past 30, so we can't really just buy a 12 and say "done". We also have a lot of flat water specialists here, so some aspects of kiting don't apply to some.

I have to disagree with "a kite is a kite is a kite" though. Every kite has different attributes. I am not convinced one kite is better, but they are definitely different.
Especially the larger, light wind kites that we ride a lot.
The variability in performance of the larger kites blows my mind. That's where I personally noticed a lot of improvement with some of last year's kites.

Because we do live somewhere where so many of our days hover around 15, I am hopeful that the light wind kites will keep getting better. If they just stay where they are at I will be happy.
Please, don't let them go backwards to 2003.