i kind of view it as standard just because it's a drop-in replacement for a standard (no fancy nubs required like the ml stuff). but at this point we're haggling on terminology.
they're pretty decent, certainly i'd prefer them over the prommy for the up to .32 ish range although if your trying to lift heavier it'll struggle. basically i put them in guns that don't like ml stuff.
yeah, it's a case of folk recommending things they think they can trust. but often there can be a lot of parroting going on.
personally i try to only suggest things i've used myself and found to be good, if i'm suggesting something based on reputation alone i try to mention it.
aoe is the oddball though, it does have its place and there are valid reasons to check it but often folks set way more store in it than is really necessary and you get folk over-correcting or applying corrections to guns that don't need it because "you always have to correct the aoe"