Yeah...right. I'm calling complete BS on this statement, especially since you've provided no proof to this claim whatsoever. Not to mention TPU did a review for the LF III 240mm not too long ago and performance was stellar on AMD and "acceptable" on Intel as per the Value and Conclusion page and earned not only the Great Value award, but Editor's Choice as well.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/arctic-liquid-freezer-iii-240-black-aio-liquid-cpu-cooler/10.html
The last is about the award given by TPU.
This is actually pretty easy to understand.
As I mentioned earlier, many water-cooled cooling products produced in China cannot be sold overseas, and those that can be sold overseas will significantly increase costs due to tariffs, various certifications, sales channels, logistics and other factors.
Most of the water-cooled production plants are in Guangzhou and Guangdong Province in China.
Therefore, in Europe, the United States, Australia and other regions, there are not many water-cooled products that players can choose. And lack of competitiveness in the index of cost performance.
AFL3 with a relatively low price, in such a relatively low competitive market, has achieved good results, so TPU and other KOL gave a high evaluation.
But that doesn't mean it's really good. "Just choose the best of a bad bunch.."
The most obvious example is VK. The GL360's performance is not much different from the cheaper C360, both of which perform much better than the AFL3 360 ARGB, and both have ARGB lighting effects.
The VK C360 sells for just under $70. The AFL3 360 costs $107.
Although there are very serious siltation problem for c360
https://www.chiphell.com/thread-2590046-1-1.html
But some kol is already doing a very hard test, and the results will be exaggerated at this point, because his test method will allow the temperature of the cooling liquid in AIO to reach more than 90 degrees - far more than the normal cooling liquid can withstand
Finally, I did my best to give some reference links as you requested.
But I have not used English for several years, so I rely on translation software. I hope you can understand what I want to express correctly.