Minor issue that PC Engine Outrun wasn't released until 1990, the Outrun box did have ST screenshots on (well, one of the gameplay and one of the 'cinematics' -https://www.mobygames.com/game/outrun/cover-art/gameCoverId,95444/), as did Street Fighter 2 (
https://hol.abime.net/2137/boxscan) and from what Bruce says it sounds like Sega were as much to blame for at least the C64 version being bad as US Gold were.
In truth US Gold, the home conversion developers AND Sega all benefitted from bad arcade conversions - US Gold got 90% of the sales for 50% of the work, Tiertex et al got 2-3 times the sales that their quality of work actually merited, and Sega got something which artificially made their consoles look better than the rival computers. The same applies to Ocean to an extent, though their conversions were a mixed bag. Capcom probably made more money from people putting 20ps into their coin-ops and from selling their own console versions than from US Gold's licensed computer versions as well, so they had little incentive to ensure that the conversions were good.
And to turn the Shadow of the Beast vs Deluxe Scrabble argument around, should you complain about a Scrabble game getting a good review if you're not good at the board game itself? I doubt anybody who planned to buy Shadow of the Beast but was put off by this apparent low AF review score (which doesn't seem to be primarily due to the difficulty) will have bought a Scrabble game instead...