This is spot on for why I dislike code reviews (though they're better than none at all) -- they either remain shallow, or take up so much time that it might have been better to just pair program it in the first place. And if the code review is being done remotely? Ugh.
I don't get it, this is presenting "design review" as an <i>alternative</i> to code review, while they fundamentally go together.<p>The problem described in this post with code reviews is when there has been a lack of design review in the first place and the reviewer at code review time had to deal with design questions!<p>Any large or complex change should start with a design review phase to have people agree on the right design, the code review with small incremental patch should be straightforward if developer and reviewer both know (and agree) with the end result in the first place.