Many of the comments here are from affiliates or theme shops.

I come from a different perspective. I am one of the managing partners of a successful web design company called NewMedia Website Design. We recommend or buy a lot of themes for our victims (oops, I mean clients!)

We buy a lot of themes that run under Genesis... but that's a small community with a rather limited number of offerings such that we can keep on top of what is 'hot' and 'new' in that sector.

But what happens when we need to do a site for a restaurant or pet shop or a salon or some other speciality biz that does not have an acceptable (to us) offering in Gen-land? We go on a theme hunt. We search for "Best pet shop wordpress theme" (i.e. http://bit.ly/1FM9ZAu) etc.

It is important that we be able to find a wide cross section of themes and if affiliate 'review' sites provide that, even if perhaps not 100% "legit," we're still grateful for the 'help.'

What choice do we have? Do you think I can call or write WPTavern and ask Jeff or Sarah for a recommendation? Do you think they have time to answer the email they get now, much less my plea for assistance? Of course not.

And yes, we do look at other restaurant/pet shop etc. sites to see what is being used, but that is also a time-sink. (We like to buy themes, but when we can't find what we need we do it ourselves with a web builder product like Dynamic from CobaltApps.)

Yes, I wish there were a lot of unbiased review sites, but there isn't... mainly because there is no easy way to monetize such a site.

So warts and all, small firms like ours need the affiliate paradigm... the "25 best.." sites. Besides the good folks at WPTavern how else are we going to find out about some of you smaller theme developers out there so we can evaluate your products?

We know a lot of the reviews are 'shills' but bottom line we only have so much time to find the right 'look' for the client... and as the saying goes, "you fight with the army you have."

So, I'm wondering if all of this is more of a problem for theme developers because from my POV the current 'system' works pretty well... at least for us.

So, if you are an affiliate of some shop, or if you are a shop with affiliates, please believe me when I say that 'we' need you. Of course we'd prefer a "Top 25" list to come from someone who is independent and unbiased, but given the need to monetize one's time in doing reviews, that is not likely to happen too often.

We need themes, you need customers. I think that for better or worse the current distribution system works pretty well for both of us.

(Dev ducks and runs!)