I think the reviewers tend to use different metrics to judge the boards. Since P55 and X58 chipset boards all basically have the same performance- some will give a higher baseclock than others, but most are within a few digits of each other- so it's going to come down to the small stuff mostly-board layout, extra SATA controllers (most of which give inferior read/write speeds that the default Intel solution), too many BIOS options and gadgets (plug in overclocking modules, diagnostics, chipset blocks/fans), which of course you're paying an arm and a leg for. All this, when the main considerations for most people is stability (and it's ability to recover from a failed OC/POST as well as it's ability to resume from S3 with OC applied), a reasonable BIOS (most people tend to find an OC-usually a number they had in mind before starting, or asking me to set, that's stable, and then promptly lose interest in the OC'ing once the profile is set) without going overboard with timings/voltages, a good layout for connectors and expansion cards, and a reasonably long warranty with good support .
The Gigabyte board's chipset block isn't huge...it justs sits behind the first PCIe x1 slot in an awkward spot if you want to use a longer length sound/tv tuner card (for instance). If you were using a short expansion card it may be useable, but personally I haven't been able to utilise the slot - although the board offers reasonable expansion for the slots that remain.
No one board has it all (the X58A-UD3R is close though) If the board is priced nicely it means that the vendor has probably skimped on the accessories bundle, used a single Gb LAN, PCI rather than PCIe based firewire controller, lower spec audio codec etc to keep the differentiation within the model lineup. If the board is enthusiast level, it probably offers everything including maid service but is going to be massively overpriced for the same basic performance level (just add some extra connectivity,must-have tantalum caps, 20+ extra power phases and some plug-in overclocking gizmo), while a lot of upper mainstream boards are neither priced well, nor offer the refinement of the überboards.
I think this is why reviewers seldom single out a particular board, because of the stratification of the products and how the pricing versus feature set gradient works. The uniformity of the chipsets, and little variance in performance now means that there are no landmark boards as there were in the past.
R.I.P. DFI, Abit, Epox, Soyo...