> Reviewers that try and apples to apples all products by comparing cost, size, advertised features and ergonomics are doing no better than you or I opening up a package and appraising it.
Unless you're buying every product on the market and load testing them in your garage, some folks do a lot better than that (e.g. project farm, or torque test channel).
But it clearly requires time and passion, and serious rigs for some of the tests (not everybody has a Skidmore lying around).
There are some good reviewers out there yeah. Sadly, they often rely on the creator's passion moreso than getting paid by their audience to provide a service. Youtube ad revenue and Amazon affiliate links are keeping these people's lights on more than the "thank you's" of their most ardent "supporters".
Google tightening the belt on Youtube monetization is probably, strangely, the best thing that could have happened to mostly-direct payments to content creators. Patreon and the like have made viewers at least somewhat more willing to pay out to access content. On the flip side, it seems to have also led to an explosion of more biased reviewers pushing their own discount codes and affiliate links to make up the difference.
There's a cultural misalignment somewhere. Journalism still hasn't cracked the nut nor has scientific peer review. Information curation and verification isn't cheap regardless of how much we'd like it to be so.
Unless you're buying every product on the market and load testing them in your garage, some folks do a lot better than that (e.g. project farm, or torque test channel).
But it clearly requires time and passion, and serious rigs for some of the tests (not everybody has a Skidmore lying around).