In my opinion, the joke is more on "reviews" that are based on listening and people who make purchase decisions based on these reviews. It's a given that everyone hears differently, each room affects the sound differently and each component affects sonics differently, right? So what value these reviewers that listen as opposed to ASR? There is no standard reference and ASR for all the bashing they get at least have a standard.
Take for example a well known reviewer reviewing speaker X with Source A by listening to it. People make a decision to buy speaker X based on that review even though they are going to hook it up with Source B.
What use is that review and how stupid to buy based off that review? Same works for ASR too. But insinuation that one is better than the other is incorrect, IMO.