If this were 2-3 years ago, I would highly agree that it would be suspicions.
In the current climate/context of this board, I think the only thing different from this thread than any other source thread is the banter.
I'd be willing to bet if you checked the Opti GH thread, or Turkish's thread, or a few other sources threads, you will find similar references to great service or whatever to a similar extent. Maybe not exact, but close enough I guess. I don't actually know though, I don't read many threads in the underground.
I honestly think what you're seeing is peoples natural tendency when it comes to discourse on sources and the environment we had a few years ago where the majority of positive feedback was responded to with absolute negativity was a completely unnatural phenomenon.
The boot is off the neck and this is what it is. Not surprising, looking at my amazon review history I've written some glowing reviews for stuff that is pretty irrelevant. Wouldn't surprise me that people do likewise for their primary hobby.
Fanboy behavior can be observed on pretty much any community for any hobby, car forums, computer forums, photography, video games, etc. In other hobbies I consider it a mostly innocent nuisance and nothing more, and I think that is the appropriate response.