It doesn't have to be "bad setup" or "hardware issue", it can be a combination of both. Take the Vive for example. For some people, it works absolutely flawless. For me, it's great 90% of the time, but every once in a while the hand just floats away from me. Why? I suspect because of windows in the room I use it in.
Now, that's theoretically a "setup" thing, because I could just not have windows, but it's also a limitation of the hardware, and it's worth noting it. Both Brad and Jeff say they've noticed these things on two different headsets at home and in the studio. Could it be they're all bad setups? Sure, but then the question becomes what's a good setup, and how easy is it for people at home to achieve it. Again, I never heard anyone complain about the Vive tracking during reviews, but since it has come out, there are definitely others out there with a similar experience (or worse) to my own. Out in the real world, people have all sorts of living rooms, and these things need to accommodate a fairly wide array of spaces to be effective. In a week or two, we'll have a much better understanding of the limitations of the PSVR and whether these tracking issues are common.
Also, and this is clearly just my opinion, but I feel like every time there's something new out there, people watch the Giant Bomb (or in the past Gamespot) guys and get mad at them for "not putting in enough effort" or "showing it off in the worst way", and most of the time they've been totally right about things (see: Wii, WiiU, Kinect, Vive/Oculus).