The main problem with contemporary criticism, as Alloway had remarked many times, was that the “main tactic” of critics, “when faced with great amounts of data has been to opt for the deceptive neatness of causal models.” What should remain speculative “hardens into opinion, becomes traditional two-valued, good/bad, in/out classification. However, trigger-happy value judgements made in advance of a descriptive and intentional account of all the work make the world too simple (which is how most people like it).” It was far more important for “topographical work on a diverse art scene rather than for autobiographical preferences masquerading as ultimate judgement.” There were those who found Alloway's critical deferral and reluctance overtly to judge frustrating, sometimes because they sought a more committed criticism; but at other times because, within Alloway's acceptance of pluralism, “there is a possibility that what passes for reportage may degenerate into passive and uncritical acceptance of all art system components, especially when accompanied by an impersonal tone devoid of value judgements.” Alloway did not think of his criticism as being deficient in that sense: “Acts of classification and contextualizing clarify the highly esteemed creative process; they do not destroy it”—but it would be closer to Paul Valéry's idea of “vague branchwork” which indicates “the structure of an art criticism that includes incomplete data and chance events, not falsely rounded and finished off,” than to conventional art history.

Criticism contrasted with art history when it was “the record of spontaneous response and fast judgement to the presence of new work.” Corinne Robins, John Perreault, and April Kingsley were all praised by Alloway for writing art criticism that “can orient viewers towards work while it is new.” Immediacy and topicality were important: the “closeness in time of the critical text and the making of the work of art gives art criticism its special flavour,” and he also paid a complement to Greenberg who had emphasized the importance of reviewing as a way of keeping in touch with actual art works. At their best, critical opinions should be provisional and open to change: “It is the prolongation of early criticism, which is topical and exploratory, into the discussion of the same artist as a celebrity that is unsatisfactory.