We did make Stereophile in 1989 with the Tower II, and also made their "recommended components' list that year. When J Scull was with the magazine he attempted to set up a 626 review, but he was dismissed before this happened.
Only way to know for sure why Stereophile neglects VMPS is to contact John Atkinson directly and ask. Last time I saw him was at CES in 2002, just after we won the Best of CES for High End Audio award. He came into our booth, I showed him the trophy, he listened to the RM 40 for 3 minutes, and left without saying a word to me.