Griffin of Electric Bike Report declares that the Aventon Ramblas and Trek Marlin 8+ have "honestly comparable specs" despite the Ramblas having twice the torque and 75% more battery capacity.  How he made this claim with a straight face is a mystery.

Every Trek shortcoming was met with a twisted interpretation. The Ramblas felt "overboosted". Yet it has a Ride Tune app that let's you customize peak torque and assist levels so this is completely invalid criticism.

The Ramblas slaughtered the Trek on range but Griffin quickly points out that the Trek edges out the Ramblas in miles per watt hour (efficiency). A pointless category because of the inherent weight advantage of a smaller battery. This is awarding double credit for lighter weight.

Despite having vastly superior climbing capability, the entire point of an eMTB, both bikes won one category for their motor.

The main advantage of the Trek was its nicer air fork. But as many in the YouTube comments point out, you can get a much nicer replacement fork on the Ramblas with the $800 savings and still have money left over.

Not surprisingly, both bikes won 3 of 6 categories for a draw. Ignoring win margins within a category (no weighting) is just ridiculous. But aside from that, the whole outcome seems contrived. 

While I don't think they were bribed by Trek, I do think they feel pressured to not pick the obviously superior bike. Doing so could jeopardize their standing with Trek and cause event invites and free test bikes to disappear. 

This is why ebike reviewers cannot be trusted