I support! You do need archive reviews from time to time e.g. when you sell your kit or shop for second hand.
I just bought an archive review from another place, it cost me a couple of quid, arrived immediately as a link to PDF and (something I did not expect) was followed a couple of days later with a list of other suggested available reviews that I may be interested in based on what I ordered originally. It shows there is a system behind it - and to create it of cause is time and money. Does it pay for itself (and in what way) I do not know, but it is certainly very useful.
When you look for archive reveiws you are probably interested in ones from other mags as well, so can an external provider supply the reviews from more than one mag? Outsourced approach?