Unless someone gets the magazine and reads the full article we won't really know will we? I know that I'm not going to just assume that all the reviewers were idiots or that the evaluation was rigged based on a lack of knowledge. Others obviously have no problem lowering themselves to that level.
Definitely curious. But the Prowler does have the capability to drop the sides to become a flatbed. Maybe some found that very useful? It also has the storage areas in the wheel wells. That they called the category Cargo & Storage makes me think that overall load/hauling capacity wasn't the only factor. Obviously the RTV series are real workhorses when it comes to toting material around. That the scores were divided into Loaded and Unloaded suggests that the magazine recognized, to some extent at least, that how much and how well a UTV carries a load is important.
I would have thought other factors would also be important when rating UTVs for working on a farm or ranch but aren't mentioned in the excerpts we see on the website. Things like ease of hooking up other equipment or support for implements. Earlier you brought up the bed height. That's an excellent point for usability. Was it considered? We don't know because we haven't seen the full article. To me having an always locked rear diff would be a real negative but from what was on the web site we don't know how important, if at all, that was.
