Then I read that he didn't even bother listening to the darn thing.
Why would he bother with listening to this amplifier?
If something measures so poorly, wouldn't you want to correlate the measurements with what you hear?
Not particularly, this amp was given a not recommended not so much because it could be differentiated from other amps if kept within it's limitations but because it wasn't considered a good buy and the engineering of the thing is a bit weird.
Do people still buy gear on measurements alone?
Yes, I do. They can tell me enough to know what I want to consider. I've yet to listen to a component that measured well and sounded bad, but I only consider this with speakers as amps, Dacs, etc.. are commodities I can look at the numbers and know if I want it and they don't have to be that great since the speaker and room will swamp the electronics in terms of audible distortion.
I don't understand the gripe with ASR, if you don't like their approach then don't pay attention to it. From my reading on their site they pretty much ignore this place try to do the same.