Yeah, but the industry is next to impossible to break into at a grassroots level. Companies just wont talk to you/deliver review material if you aren't willing to play ball with them, which then limits your coverage. Let's face it, people want to read the juicy stuff and exclusive content, not another Press Release regurgitation blog - and acquiring those juicy details, today, requires dirty deals. If there was a better, and realistic, way for an independent games news source to match the quality of coverage of the folks who have the "in", I'm sure many people would already be making use of it.
Well, I don't know about all of the specifics you're outlining here. But it would not surprise me that it would be exceptionally difficult to build an upstart that both (i) had the *actual* critical and professional distance required and (ii) offered good content, and the kind of content that many, many people want to read.
If that's the case, then it speaks to the depth of the problem. The fact that there is not a clear grassroots avenue is a symptom of the deep relationship between the existing games (pseudo-)media and the companies that they allege to cover.
As I keep saying (not that anyone cares), I'm not invested in replacing the current facade with an actual gaming media. But if one wanted to take on that project, they would need to start fresh. And it would be exceptionally challenging. It's easy enough to create a blog that maintains the relevant critical and professional distance. But blogging, for all of its fine qualities, does not seem to be everything that you guys are after. If you want researched stories, and fact-checking, and interviews, and in-depth coverage of the games-development process, and the kind of critical analysis (in reviews and/or previews) that requires someone with some training, then you're talking about building an organization that requires paying people. And it is hard to see how you could hire full-time, well-educated, hard-working writers in that environment, while gaining a readership (via whatever product-niche you're targeted), and finding a way to commercialize the project, without dying. The existent (pseudo-)media and the games industry would both want nothing more than to sink you.