Heh. Yeah, I hear ya. I feel the same way sometimes. Which is why I went the route of just listening to as much stuff as I can with my own ears, making my own judgements, and not worrying about it
Truth be told, there aren't a ton of products these days that are truly awful entirely. The majority of products have at least a few redeeming qualities, or you can see how maybe they're not for you, but someone else might like 'em. I think it's fair for any reviewer to try and make out the audience at which a given product is targeted. And to not go overboard with personal dislike and just say, "it sucks!" if there are still some strengths, which most products do have.
But you've gotta keep in mind that extremely few review sites outright purchase every product they review. The vast majority rely on getting review samples from manufacturers, or maybe retailers on rare occasions.
And that is certainly not ideal. When a reviewer is well aware that if they give a negative review, they'll probably never receive products from that company ever again, it certainly brings into question just how honest the reviewer can really be! You throw advertising on top of that, and it destroys all credibility.
The thing is, as readers, we can't really change this status quo. The only thing we could do would be to pay subscription fees that are high enough that the review site could afford to purchase all the products they review, and no longer be at the mercy of the marketing departments of manufacturers. And since I brought it up, that's what reviews are: marketing. Don't ever think they're something else. Both the review site and the manufacturers are here to make money. And it's a symbiotic relationship, which further erodes the notion that reviews exist to serve the customers.
So since the reviews aren't going to change, we, as readers, have to learn how to make the reviews useful to us. Typically, there are one or two lines in the review, drastically understated, pointing out a "teeny tiny" weakness in the product. Well THAT'S the review. What sounds like a teeny tiny weakness, it's not so teeny tiny in real life. The reviewer had to say it that way or else the manufacturer would never send them another product to review. Hell, a reviewer can say nothing but praise and the manufacturers still won't be happy. They're only happy if they're given a perfect score and the review says that there are no other competing products because it's so good.
There's a handful of sane manufacturers. Ones that will actually take criticism and work to get better. Or who appreciate an honest review that says how the product will really appeal to some people, but not others. But most of the publicity department people are insane.
My whole approach has been to listen for myself, form my own opinions, and then use my own experience as a frame of reference so that I can compare and contrast my own thoughts with the written reviews. That way, I can spot which reviewers are honest, which ones are out to lunch, which ones understate things, and which ones overstate things. It sucks that you basically have to know things for yourself ahead of time. I consider most reviews, and the recommendations of people on forums to be somewhat useless to folks who really don't have any experience. They can't possibly know who to listen to. And everyone SEEMS like they know what they're talking about. But it's all just about having a frame of reference. You learn to trust certain people, ignore others, and somewhat listen to some people, but always take their words with a grain of salt.
It's just like the rest of life, really
It's good to be a skeptic. But in the end, the only way forward is to try things out for yourself, build a library of knowledge and experience, and then use that to help you weed through the endless ocean of opinions and marketing.
