I agree with you. Unless people are tracking their cars most wouldn't be able to tell any performance difference btw the vast majority of tires out there. Rarely do people get the opportunity to test tires side by side in an apples to apples comparison. Generally it's a comparison of one's brand new set compared to whatever tire is being replaced that's at the end of it's life; is it really a wonder why most think the new tires ride better.
I've got almost 150K miles of experience with the Achilles ATR Sport 2's on my old car and will not hesitate one second to put them on my SR+ when the times comes. They've been around for a good while so there are plenty of reviews of them being used on Audi S series and BMW M series cars where the owners are very pleased with them.