Yes indeed, I too have had multiple conversations about reviewers' listening rooms with my audiophile buddies. The clutter, the tiny rooms, etc ... They look to be FAR from ideal. I'm assuming most of what they're doing is near field, otherwise the busy-ness of the spaces makes me wary of their reviews... Take everything with a grain (giant block) of salt.
Some famous reviewers have atrocious listening rooms!
It’s almost sad, really. Some reviewers I’ve been reading for decades, when showing their rigs on YouTube, have absolutely horrible rooms. Weird shaped; too small w/o acoustic treatment; crap all over the place within the room or around the speakers; and on and on.
Had I known about the listening rooms they use to review gear in the past, I would not have placed such a value on what they were writing. I think reviewers should not just list the equipment they used in a given review, but be required to show their listening rooms, as well.
Turns out my listening room isn’t so bad, after all.