I started this journey following Crin's rankings and that adherence to rankings stuck with me for a long time. I mean, who doesn't want to own or aspire to 'the best'.The lower tiers are easy - things that I didn't like at all, or considered that they had some major issues etc etc - if something is a bottom of the barrel, Tier 5 IEM, hearing something even worse won't change that.
It's mostly Tier 1 and 2 that are really problematic. Back when I heard the A18t for the first time it was genuinely one of the best things on the market. Now, sure it's still great, but there's also a bunch of IEMs that beat it at its own game for less. That whole "relativity" of the ranking list kinda kills the point of having tiers.
I've also had quite a lot of questions that Imo defeated the purpose of the ranking list along the lines of "I was curious about X, but I saw you ranked it as a Tier 2 so maybe I shouldn't bother," which is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish - go try everything you can try, be curious about IEMs, don't take my rambles as any sort of gospel and ultimately, form your own ranking lists in your head
Some of the absolute best things I've heard are Tier 2's, some of my friends' favourite stuff are Tier 4s and definitely Tier 3s as well.
The part of the ranking list that I do want to keep in one way or another however is the short description of the IEMs - I feel like that's a great resource for anyone getting into the hobby, they can get an idea of what a bunch of stuff is like in most general terms.
I might make a big chart as a post on this thread where I keep doing that, with no particular ranking or order
But the longer you're in the hobby the more you realise how problematic this is, especially since rankings are basically only one data point from one person in a subjective hobby where no two people will rank IEMs the same way. But since 'friendly' competition is a major part of this hobby, rankings will always appeal, especially to newcomers who want to find the fastest way to 'the top'.
I've also abandoned scoring completely, and taken scores off my blog reviews. Ultimately they're more detrimental than useful.