So very few hardware manufacturers in the Bitcoin ever delivered more wealth to their clients despite making grandiose claims. BFL was probably the biggest loudmouth of them all.
The only mass production hardware manufacturers are Bitmain, Avalon, KNC and BitFury. Bitmain is the best.
I think he/she was referring to past manufacturers (see title of thread). It seems even in the 4 you listed the opinions have swayed very far. Avalon was loved until Yifu cheated everybody. KNC was loved after their first/second batch and then went to hated.
Avalon is kinda hard as if were talking about past it's a different company things such as Yifu. If were talking about current it's considered "Canaan-Creative" but almost everyone still calls it Avalon. I never dealt with the company during the Yifu times (luckily). I have only dealt with the current one.
Another big one I dont see mentioned was asicminer. I mean they were the game for a while with block erupters, then blades, then that box. And now they are nothing. Who would have guessed that when they number 1 for so long.