I bought my Lynskey without a test ride, but I may not have purchased it if I had gone on a test ride. Nothing wrong with the fit/geometry, mind you - she fits fine. Her two issues come from tire clearance and wheel choice.
- Tire clearance. When Lynskey stated that there was clearance for 28mm tires, they were being dead serious - not a millimeter more. Problem is, the bike came fitted with Continental Ultra Sport 2s in 28mm, which actually inflate to about 31.6mm, resulting in little more than a single millimeter of clearance on each side - the bike 'growled' on my first couple of rides when I got out of the saddle, and it took me a couple of days to realize that the growl was actually tire rub against the chainstay. If I had figured this out on a test ride, I might not have passed on the bike, but I would at least have requested installation of tires that actually fit.
- Wheel choice. Bike came with the option of Vision Team 30s, or for an upcharge, Stans Notubes of some variety. The Stans had a max pressure of 85PSI, which seemed a bit low to me - at the time, I was riding 100psi on 25mm tires, and I currently ride 90psi on my rear wheel, 80 on front. This left the Visions, which are heavy, slow to spin up, and in general, make the bike feel more lethargic than it ought to. A bike shop may have been willing to work with me on other wheel options, but if I had known how unfortunate the Visions felt, I may have looked elsewhere. These days, Lynskey allows for an upgrade to HED AR wheels, which I likely would've picked - 325g lighter (claimed weights) and 21mm internal width make for a more appealing option.
So yes, meeting the bike in person and having a test ride could definitely help you form opinions, or at least give you the opportunity to trade out some bits that don't work as well as you'd like.
I like my Lynskey, but I'm also aware that she's not 100% perfect. I guess that's why there's always n+1.