In reply to Andre.

Hey Andre,

Paid, or sponsored will both work. Some TRT reviewers are extremely knowledgable, i.e. Justin Tadlock and have been doing this for a long time. We also had Chip Bennett that has been with the team since the beginning.

Back then we had issues, but the review quality was never compromised.

Things got worse, and this is not just me saying that, is when one too many people with personal agendas and opinions got involved, some of them is with the way we review themes and respectfully the inability to assess the code review correctly. And not to mention issues with up-selling. Pro version/premium themes and plugins are what made WordPress be where it is today, not the other way around, just take WooCommerce alone as an example.

IMO and I will agree with you is that design should be part of the process, but giving the situation this is virtually impossible to do.

Yes, TF does review both, design and code.