Understanding the controls is actually fundamental when giving criticism of a game. A reviewer claiming the controls in Super Mario Bros. are broken because he doesn't know you can jump with the A button (perhaps not the best example I could come up with, but hopefully a clear one) would of course be factually incorrect, and I can't see how the frustration of not being able to get past the first goomba would not affect his overall judgement of the game.
Of course, not knowing that might not be the reviewer's fault. Perhaps the game didn't communicate this adequately, and while a game like Mario doesn't really need it (anyone would just try out the different buttons) perhaps something a lot more subtler, like how the aiming seemingly works here, does.
All this, of course, if (and it's a big if) this is the cause of the issues some are having with the controls. Which is not a certainty (I said I guess it was because I have seen several people complaining about the constant need to re-calibrate the aiming, but in the end who knows?).