I know this sounds horrible, but at least in God of War they made me feel badass because there was no way I could do some of those movements in normal gameplay.
Also might as well never use GAF for anything, because they could be partial. Or not use the internet because some people could be partial. Or you know what? I'm just going for my own opinion or time. That works! (not against you Nib heh)
I fully agree with both parts of your post. Yes GOW's QTE's were atypical combat finishers that did indeed make you feel badass, and imo worked in context, and secondly that ultimately we should really only rely on our own opinions as anything conclusive.
In terms of opinions prior to getting my own chance though, I personally see more validity in many GAF opinions than I do of random YouTubers or even Journalists. Namely because I know many of us here are hardcore gamers, that appreciate things beyond a typical scope. I mean, just look at the impressions of the game so far, positives or negatives, these are GAFers who really invested their full attention in to the world Ready at Dawn created, exploring, analysing, collecting, appreciating etc, and I relate to that. Developers put so much effort in to things like art, scene set up, controls, mechanics, physics systems, lighting, textures, sound score etc, it can be frustrating to me personally, when some people just gloss over it. I fully respect that people play games differently, and that's fine, its just not the way I play games myself.