I'll concede that the "community" of praises for the Microgard quality could be called a preponderance of evidence. But being a data driven person, I still stand on the "evidence" as being anecdotal and subjective.
You have been here, on BITOG, much longer than me. So you know what I am talking about, when I say that here on BITOG, we seem to swarm towards the flavor of the month. When I first started following BITOG, Purolator was the holy grail of oil filters. Until it became known as the Splitolator. Then it was Wix/NAPA Gold that could do no wrong. For a very brief flash in the pan, everyone here was singing accolades to the MicroGreen. Somewhere in all of this, there was a loyal following to the Mobil 1 and Royal Purple filters, because they were well constructed. (Sound familiar?) Then it was the Fram Ultra that everyone loved, because of an excellent filtration rating. And now? Well, today it is the MIcrogard. Next week? Who knows.
As you point out, we are always searching for something better here on BITOG. And many of these changes, in favor of one filter over another, were based upon that search for something better. But all too often, it just feels like "the flavor of the month".