[Dismas]

I'm curious what they tested with. Generally speaking, I'd expect to see more varied results for protection rates.

They did outline the test procedures in the linked article, just below the tested AV list. Why did you expect to see more varied results for the protection rates? Most AVs today have reached some kind of plateau where most of the major AV companies are equivalent and offer roughly the same protection. It's quite evident in the results published, they all scored 98% and upwards, which is a pass in my eyes.

Expected ESET and F-Secure to outperform the competitors. I also expected McAfee and Defender to have much worse results.