Patrick Chase
I would word that to: Derek generally doesn't review a plane unless there is some way (higher bevel angle, cap iron, etc) to get it to produce good results on the Weird Sh*t that he works down there.

Back before he was aware of proper cap iron use he made plenty of references to common-pitch BD planes causing tearout in his reviews of other planes. That may explain why he didn't really do dedicated reviews of BD planes until 2015 (LV Custom family).

As David and others have said, high pitch fixes tearout, but at the cost of degraded surface finish and increased effort. If you're using machined wood such that all you need is a thin finishing pass, and if you're going to use a film finish anyway, then it's totally viable.