Yes, but in other cases there have been "independent" reviews that weren't really independent, e.g. test makers who did their own test validation but got academ

Yes, but in other cases there have been "independent" reviews that weren't really independent, e.g. test makers who did their own test validation but got academics to do the writeup ... who worked at the university the manufacturer was spun out of. There's a lot of bad behaviour going on right now in the scientific world that would normally not be tolerated, but standards have dropped lot in the name of speed.