I don’t think the absence of reviews necessarily says anything. I think TADS will have got reviewed in Probe, it’s just likely the issue isn’t archived [the majority of Probe sadly isn’t archived]. I’m not sure about Inform. I know you’ve looked at the thread where I posted a view on “interactive fiction” and IF Comp from someone in the Probe community; IFDB Spelunking - Report - #47 by 8bitAG
Adventure Probe, Red Herring, Syntax etc. were produced and read by a very specific British text adventuring community, that had roots firmly in the 8-bit scene. I think a lot of us were struggling to find systems that replicated the simplicity of the Quill, GAC and the PAW. So much so that there was even an effort to create a community replacement. (ACE). Even many years after the “death” of machines like the ZX Spectrum, the community were still writing games for 8-bits, even if they were then played in emulators on the Amigas and PCs that people had moved on to.
TADS was used in our community, though. Simon Avery, Geoff “The Grue” Rens, Neil Shipman and Jim MacBrayne were some of the writers who produced games with it.
AGT was probably just as popular. Sue “Syntax” Medley, Bob Adams, Gil Williamson, Bev Truter, and others used that.