I think they are talking about a suppliers point of view."demand for 20'-28' carbon that wasn't there before'.
To me the breakthrough came when xtel, some say at alex's suggestion, used shorter closed lenghts but more sections. This massive improvement in useability was groundbreaking, even if a little obvious in hindsight. The scaffold pole mentality was over, and this freed people up to say if fibreglass can do this what would carbon be like?
Of course gardiners answered that question by dipping a toe in the water with a modular 40' and higher sl2, and then when this didn't send them bankrupt, they had some of the know how necessary to take a crack at a telescopic (slx), which now seems the industry standard on price and performance that the others have to beat.
From a supplier point of view the domestic wfp has exploded, only time will tell if people stick with £500 day to day poles,or if cheaper fibreglass poles with a shorter life become the norm. As regards a comparitive review this is normally undertaken by an independant trade magazine. There is no such thing as an impartial review, and i wouldn't have thought which would bother as the market is so small , and this also a dangerous strategy because they would likely highlight the best benefit to householders.(i mean home systems).
I can't speak for others but I have varied between cheap poles and more expensive carbon poles depending on my finances at the time. If I needed to replace a pole and money was tight for a while, I would revert back to cheap fibreglass for the sake of cashflow. I would always view fibreglass as a temp solution though.