[RegW]

> The problem is not with code reviews but with how ... they have become.

Perhaps "banal" is the word you are meant to use.

There's a saying about that a 10 line PR will get 10 comments, but a 1000 line PR will get a "looks good!".

Of course this is not really what is happening. A 10 line PR can be completely unintelligible and a 1000 line PR might be a joy to read.

Once the code base has become a ball of mud, no one really bothers to review anything properly - it's going to take as long as writing it yourself. So perhaps, we get picky about some worn out code style point (incorrect indent etc) just to show we are alive.

[theonething]

> Once the code base has become a ball of mud, no one really bothers to review anything properly

This is the standard code review experience I've had across companies I've worked at. It's just theatre, bad and irritating theatre.