Reviews on SR were rarely negative because the venders didn't do "some bad business". They did really good business, followed by really bad business and disappeared. It was common for vendors to cash out ESPECIALLY on the 4/20 sales and various other sales. They would offer incentives to FE (finalize early, ie release funds from the arbitrage) for months. Then, they would have a big sale. People would FE because they had such good rep, and then the vendors would disappear.
It was a common tactic. I'm not a DNM researcher anymore, but I'm sure it is still a common tactic. I expect that few reliable dealers are around for more than a year. That was certainly the case with SR, and the few that followed quickly in their footsteps.
The new markets are based around forums instead of marketplaces because the markets themselves were bigger targets (everyone considers the forums owned) and the markets offered no real security for buyers or sellers. It was just a costly place to unite the two, and often a source of theft themselves (hacks, or corrupt admins absconding with the funds.)
Acting like it was some sort of utopia is ridiculous. I'm very much on the liberty side of the political landscape, but we don't do anyone any favors by sugar coating the darknet drug industry. The lack of street violence doesn't mean that there aren't wars raging. From the sources of the heroine (mostly from rural Afghanistan), cocaine (mostly from the jungles of South America), and as close as Mexico thousands die at the hands of violent monsters. Go watch some cartel videos on liveleak if you need a reminder.
We don't need to allow ourselves to be satisfied with violence as an externality. We need to consider massive changes in drug policy and defund the violence.