It is difficult yeah but you'd think somebody would have done more. Tom has good PSU reviews and definitely better than most others just due to the fact he has the equipment and worked with Johnny a little bit before iirc, but still you'd think we'd figure out how old the 80 standard is by now.
What would be really interesting is since Corsair hired Johnny, everything released since his acquisition, those PSUs should be tested for the "optimized test" units to see if they were cheating. Would be a great insight I think. Or at least test units against this new standard to see how they perform.
The 80+ standard started in 2004, so it isn't that old in the grand scheme of things. Beyond that, the standard wasn't really a market standard until 2007 or so.
As far as cheating the system goes, I have heard that some PSU makers used shorter cables than retail units to pump up their efficiency a little bit forward. I also know of cases where PSU makers have submitted either their 115V or 230V versions for rating depending on which was most efficient. Sometimes one made the grade and the other barely missed it.
80+ was good because it pushed a lot of the terrible PSUs out of the market. There are a lot fewer stories of people buying a cheap PSU that killed their system than there were 10 years ago. That said, improvements are needed to push the industry forward.
The problem with such in-depth PSU reviews is the time and knowledge that it takes to do them. There is also the fact that barely any manufacturers are interested in sending PSU review units.
I don't speak to manufacturers often regarding review units and that kind of thing, that's TTL's job, but I suspect that a lot of PSU makers avoid sending out units because some PSUs really shine in certain aspects of our testing.
Even today, Corsair's RMi series units and its more recent counterparts do a great job in our ripple tests. There is a reason why Corsair hasn't needed to release many new high-end PSUs in recent years that haven't just been modified versions of existing designs. Say what you will about Corsair, but they know how to make PSUs.