The elephant in the room here is that previously there was one person who was somehow doing all the reviews. How did one part-time volunteer do so much more than a larger team can do? From everything we have seen, it looks like they were not really doing all the reviews they were claiming to do, and there was no oversight mechanism to proactively catch that or an ability to report that situation.

If that is the case, the new team is being put in a hard spot, since there is a lot more work to be done than was really being done in the past, but most people would not be aware of that.

Also, if that is the case, then it would be a good example of why better governance of WordPress is needed.