Very interested to hear the takes HB has.

Schomer, Rao, & Perger were selected for name recognition- feel free to substitute their names with literally any other coffee figure with a large audience.

I mean, one thing James is pretty careful about is not making extreme statements. Take his DF64 review for instance, it wasn't directly negative even though he had some fairly harsh critiques of the equipment. I think he goes above and beyond to not enter into controversial debates where public opinion hasn't settled (like longer brew times for instance or flats vs. conicals). And that does lead to some people, including in this community, finding him sort of...milquetoast, which I think is fair.

I do think you can read into James a bit if you're willing to take the time. Like his 9barista review, he says it takes ~10 minutes to make a shot and you just have to trust that it is doing what it says it's doing...to me, that says "yeah, this is a cool novelty, but I'd never recommend buying this over something like the Flair or Robot." But maybe that's just my interpretation, and I am willing to admit that I am charmed by him.

Well, I'm just a coffee drinker, certainly not a cognoscenti, and I've only watched a few of his videos. My first thought was an internal question with regard to who is this guy and why should I think his opinion matters. I'm too old, and definitely not the personality type, to be swayed by an influencer which is frankly what he appears to be to me. So I listen to his opinions but if I disagree I see no reason to disagree with him. I've got no vested interest in really caring what he thinks. Combined with his soft spoken delivery that leaves me with absolutely no desire to do more than just shrug and move on.

I think there's no room for these types of videos that really contribute nothing to the conversation other than weird speculation for personal gain (you made a video that you monetized with James Hoffman's name in it). Is James Hoffman doing wrong to the world of coffee?

Tempest in a teapot. There's plenty of that already in coffee world.

I enjoy Hoffmann's videos, though I've only watched a small fraction of his extensive library (not enough hours in the day, yada yada...) I find his approach pleasant and engaging, if somewhat loquacious, and nearly always informative. And that's how I view what he does -- he provides interesting information on basic and intermediate subjects, and some testing of theories that are bandied about in coffee circles.

Hoffmann's middle-of-the-road approach on this stuff is just fine with me, and I see no reason why he should shift to a more opinionated stance. We have plenty of people in coffee world who do that, and it doesn't always serve our interests -- i.e., often it's more heat than light. Sure, we need people who take strong positions and question conventional wisdom. That's how some important advances have happened. But that doesn't mean everyone has to do it, or that those who focus on providing non-controversial information have no value to us. I think we need someone like James Hoffmann in coffee world, and I'm glad we have him.

I've only watched a couple of Tim Wendelboe's videos, but definitely agree that he has a lot to offer. I've read quite a bit about cupping, and done a fair amount at home, but still got some excellent tips from Wendelboe's videos on the subject. It really helps to watch an expert go through each step explaining the what and the why. I have to say that I prefer Tim's no-nonsense, low-drama and succinct approach over James's more lengthy and produced approach, but that won't stop me from watching Hoffmann's videos when they cover interesting topics. Perhaps more germane to this discussion, I haven't seen anything controversial in Tim Wendelboe's videos so far.

Indeed Hoffmann chooses the topics carefully and tries to formulate everything he says as inoffensive as possible. I agree that it is possible to interpret his carefully constructed sentences to find criticisms, it is just not so obvious to the naked ear and probably even less to someone without a great level of knowledge about the topic at hand.
In my eyes that actually is a strength of a good reviewer, after all a review should not affect a bad business in a bad way, but rather make good businesses shine. I mean who would willingly bankrupt someone just because they are bad at what they are doing. Only if someone harms other with a business one should consider such steps.
Hoffman definitely has this level of power and even made a video about it.

Edited: In a polite review one needs to read between the lines, what is not said is often as important as what is said.

The topic of the video was something different though. Hoffmann was just the example.

I actually kind of disagreed with Hoffmann here on HB twice in the last few month and got a bit of mixed feedback.
Some took the chance to actually start a discussion: James Hoffmann's $$$ single dose flat burr grinder reviews [VIDEO]

While other were funny and hopefully aware how ironic their post was: James Hoffmann's $$$ single dose flat burr grinder reviews [VIDEO]

Others took offense: James Hoffmann on Understanding Espresso: Pressure

To his defense, I was a tad polemic
To my shame I even went as far as editing my first post to not face the wrath of Hoffmann's followers. So I had the same feeling about some taking his word as written in stone, but do these people exist.

The first two examples are both related to the same statement of mine, which was wrong in the first place. At least that earned me my 15 minutes: Quotable Quotes

One more time with feeling
"Guys maybe stop beating a dead horse. I already agreed twice that my statement was wrong, but I am happy to agree to it a couple more times if you insist." --Nino (coffeeOnTheBrain), James Hoffmann's $$$ grinder reviews

I forgot...
Try April Coffee's YouTube channel for a change. Patrick Rolf is surely not shying away from unpopular opinions, speaking his mind about products, or direct attacks on "other people" (he doesn't name them, you will know who anyway).