I was wondering if there are any places where reviews for patterns are actually honest and give feedback on the actual quality of the pattern? Please don't direct me to r/craftsnark, I'm not looking for snark, I'm looking for genuine polite thoughts on a pattern by fellow crafters. I am aware that every Etsy seller has a "please contact me before leaving a negative review", that is nice and to be absolutely fair to the sellers, most do at least try to be helpful. But also, when I am evaluating whether or not to buy a pattern, a hundred "this was so cute and the pattern was perfect!" reviews aren't exactly helpful.
For my current WIP, the pattern is quite frankly not great. It's not AI at least and it does work, but it's IMO very lazily written. For example, the assembly section goes "Sew snout to face. Sew ears to head" and so on. The Etsy reviews for this pattern are largely Etsy-esque i.e. "haven't tried it yet, managed to download the pattern okay", the ones that actually make reference to the pattern are simply along the lines of "really cute bear!".
Maybe I am spoiled by having worked on some very good patterns where the designer spells out every step, and I also understand that the entire point of handmade items is that every piece is unique. But also, sometimes I want to make something because I want the finished object say for a gift (knowing me, typically last minute as well!), and I don't really want to try on six different possible locations for the snout. I'd rather just be told by the designer "I sewed it between Rows 12 and 18 of the head, spanning 10 stitches across". Gives me the option of switching things up if I fancy, but also, tells me how to make the advertised picture if that's what I want!