Most video game criticism is garbage, but the idea that proper critics - i.e. educated, thoughful, and insightful - are somehow not necessary or that their input doesn't mean much is wild.
For example, I love Jane Eyre, but The Madwoman in the Attic is just as important as the work that it critiques because it dissects the issues of gender and race in the book that Bronte, whether knowingly or not, wrote into her own work. Good critics catch these things and discuss and analyze them properly. I feel like the Polygon review was a fair bit of criticism and generally thoughtful. These game devs just want unthinking worshipfulness sometimes, which is what happens I guess when reviewers are really an extension of the video game's advertising arm in so many cases.
Who I don't give a damn about is some VO defending his work on a game uncritically because he can't take critique.
And I certainly don't rate most of the unthinking criticism from the majority of the player base.