G15 raw image quality

Is there an explainable reason why the G15 RAW image quality on the DPR studio tests is so bad? Is it due to the software used to open the images?  Are there any examples of RAW images that have been opened in Lightroom 4?

I'm getting a G15 next month but only at the start of an overseas trip, I won't have time to experiment with settings, I'll really just be taking the camera out of the box and shooting. Because of this I don't want to take a chance with choosing the wrong settings. I'd rather shoot in Jpeg if it's going to be safer.

Also, I did ask in another thread, I would like to see some examples of video shot at 640x480. I'm not really much into video but I might want to take some short clips. I could do without though the huge HD file sizes.