I agree with you that useful code review is a tough nut to crack. Professional editors exist for writing, and science has the peer review process (also flawed).

Reading code, is a whole different ball of wax from writing it (and from optimizing it in some cases) - I can think of few people who are great at both. I have to wonder if we will ever get to the point where "review" sits in an outside role/function that isn't already overloaded (team lead, architect, management).

Does the fact that we don't have dedicated code reviewers speak to its immaturity or (in)effectiveness.