It's a far greater endorsement to have someone place your fic on a visible list of favorites (with the potential for others to click over) than for them to toss out a quick one-word review.

exactly! personally, when it comes to finding fic on FF.net these days, i use people's favorites list way, way more than looking through fic reviews. Especially since in the vast majority of cases, the more reviews a fic has, the worse it is.

...the next time the review rant rolls around, i should mention this. i'm like, 99% certain people crying for reviews are doing it because they think it gets them more readers, and don't consider the fact that they may just turn readers away. :p