The problem with performance reviews are many. Often, the people doing them don’t have a clue what they’re doing; they’re not aligned to anything specific in the company so you’re being appraised against nothing; they don’t look at what (if any) training you’ve been on and how that was applied to your job; etc etc.
If done correctly, (as it sounds the last one might be), they can be a boon to the company (achieving corporate goals through recruitment, training and feedback), and to individuals. Most often though, they’re arbitrary and useless.