The part that is missing here (and I generally agree with your comments BTW) is that I don't just believe in things, I test them - I'm a science guy. So for oil for example, I've done lots of UOAs with LM oils in my VWs and compared them to UOAs of other commonly used brands. I currently am running M1 0W40 in my Sportwagen to see how that UOA looks w/r to viscosity drop over a change b/c many swear by it and think that it's a higher quality product - so I'm testing that out vs. just blindly believing in things. What if it does show a better result? Then maybe my "beliefs" change.
The flip side of this I see here on BITOG is the opposite of "blind loyalty" that seems to be inferred about myself or folks that use some of these products, it's blind "hate" (too strong of a word but all that came to me this morning) - regardless of whether K&Ns cause issues, folks will say they do b/c it's online group-think here and elsewhere. Regardless whether LM oil looks the same as M1 or whatever brand in UOA, it is still "over-rated" b/c some folks just can't stand their marketing. dept...and it's fun to rile them up about it..hahahaha
In the end you are correct, we all chose what we want to use/spend our money on and generally "believe in it" much like I'm sure you believe in what oil you use in your cars even if the data show you can use something cheaper/etc. in it and someone online says so. I take it you are over on vortex/mk7? Have you done anything to that Golf? The little 1.8 can be quite a power-house with some software....