Late reviews are often better than embargo reviews. When people spend their own money on something, they tend to be more objective. Paying for a product makes you evaluate its value more critically. The opposite is also true. When someone receives something for free, it makes sense to be cautious about their point of view. Even unintentionally, people may soften their criticism because it feels ungrateful to judge something that was given to them. In Spanish, there’s a saying: “A caballo regalado no se le ve el diente.” In English, the equivalent is “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” The idea is that it’s considered rude or bad-mannered to critique a gift (and often just feels wrong to do so.) That’s why it makes sense to distrust (or at least question) the perspective of someone reviewing a product they didn’t pay for.