I would suspect it's about our radical change in lifestyle.
Previously scented candles where more marketing but once people became more home orientated and practically used they found they were not what they were promised.
But it's an interesting theory.
OT: I think there's some want for scenting homes using better tech. The market is currently more about the lifestyle over the practical.
Given that the author wrote this, "I downloaded a random subsample of US-based customer reviews of the 3 most popular scented candles"
Are you claiming that counterfeits are affecting all three? Or that there are enough counterfeits in at least one of them to cause the average to drop so substantially? And that is a more likely outcome than covid affecting a substantial portion of the population causing a drop in reviews?
The reply this tweet thread is based on is from the seller's own website themselves seeing a large increase in negative reviews from customers that state their candles have no smell.
I feel jumping to conclusions about a rise in counterfeits is unnecessary.
Previously scented candles where more marketing but once people became more home orientated and practically used they found they were not what they were promised.
But it's an interesting theory.
OT: I think there's some want for scenting homes using better tech. The market is currently more about the lifestyle over the practical.