That's a very cynical take away from a document saying expertise, authority, and trustworthiness are the most important measures of page quality. I can see how

That's a very cynical take away from a document saying expertise, authority, and trustworthiness are the most important measures of page quality. I can see how forums would take a hit because users are anonymous, but personal blogs and niche websites should be rated high. Assuming the blog owner has some expertise to back their work, then just listing a relevant Ph.D. or other professional affiliations on the site about page would be more than good enough to fit these guidelines. This would seem to go more so for niche websites as demonstrated expertise should be more apparent. Note that site reputation was listed as the very least important metric. I doubt anyone else read all 168 pages, but can you direct me to the page that supports your claim? I didn't find anything that I would qualify as "directly asks raters to boost established sites and downrank things like forums, personal blogs, and niche websites."