Fairly simple to purchase test kits that include reference standards
eg, Seachem
Yes, but so what? That is one more thing to waste your money on and which would be better spent on buying more plants or better quality equipment. Again, having standards does not help you to get better readings when you actually mix the reagents in the tank water. You have to test the tank water. How does a standard help when the water to be tested is corrupted with ions that fool the test kit?
"pH and so forth" - no idea why these measurements would be impervious to the
pH test kits are not impervious to corruption but they are less sensitive to ions in the test sample that corrupt the readings. Obviously, if the sample vessel itself is corrupted with acids or bases then yes, this will have an effect on the readings. So for example we've had cases where the hobbyist had unwittingly cleaned the test vessel with an acidic or a alkaline solution and the residue corrupted the readings. As you say, this was an error on the part of the hobbyists and not on the part of the test kit per se.
A KH test kit on the other hand is advertised as being able to quantify Carbonate Hardness, yet it doesn't always provide that value, do you agree? It actually measures alkalinity, so only in cases where the alkalinity is due to 100% CO3 does it provide a true Carbonate Hardness value.
The "...poor understanding hobbyists have of the actual parameters they are measuring..." comes into play here because few have a grasp on the differences between the two and they make judgements and poor decisions based on their lack of understanding. So yes, the KH test kit is another one of those kits that is fooled by other ions in the test sample and which does not provide any more accuracy even if standards are provided.
I think this is the point you appear to be ignoring. If the test kit was called an "Alkalinity Test Kit" instead of a "KH Test Kit" then I would not have a problem with it, but the data is false based on the kit nomenclature. You may feel this lack of distinction is OK, perhaps because you understand the difference, but I find this to be deceptive because the target audience is much less aware of the difference.
KH measurement is critical if one intends to use the information to determine CO2 levels for example, so it turns out that hobbyists are forced to outsmart the test kit in order to derive meaningful values from it's results.
I reiterate that it is extremely difficult to measure Nitrogen compounds in aquarium tank water specifically because of the compounds in the water which the reagents are incapable of distinguishing apart from the compounds of interest.
Cheers,