Hi! To expand on #20 there is a lot of stuff going on but like you said most of it is SEO spam.
It is further hampered by planned obsolescence and the increasingly fast pace that new products are released at. It is very difficult and expensive to maintain actual experience with everything in a product space.
It can't be crowd sourced either because most people are overly attached to their purchases and can't give objective comparisons between something they don't own.
I think the closest thing to shopping guides is review sites like Wirecutter or magazines/blogs that run end of year Best of... issues. I do have to some go to sources for gear in particular categories. And for some specific electronics that I need, I find that Wirecutter won’t steer me far wrong.
Those are still pretty spammy and often full of misinformation. Wirecutter's flashlight recommendations have always been terrible and so I have no faith in them at all.
They came up with surprisingly good recommendations for lights: Thrunite Archer 2A, Manker E12, Mini Maglite Pro. Their general advice was also reasonable: adjustable focus is overrated, use rechargeable batteries.
It's not perfect. I'd have liked to see a recommendation for something more powerful with an 18650 battery and USB charging and perhaps something more pocket-friendly. They only mention color temperature briefly, while I consider it important (most people prefer neutral white after trying it outdoors). 2xAA is not a battery configuration I'm fond of. All that aside, these aren't bad recommendations. Maybe the Maglite is a little questionable, but you could do worse.
Outdoor Gear Lab on the other hand did a terrible job - so bad that they pulled their article after it got an extremely negative reaction on /r/flashlight.
In general I think that people with very specific perspectives and points of view on a narrow category don't care for general review sites. I never liked Consumer Reports for high-end camera reviews. But I've generally found Wirecutter to do a good job and they provide enough rationale for their choices to help me decide if they're making their decisions using the same criteria that I would.
Review sites mostly have various conflicts of interest but the best ones seem to manage them reasonably.
It is further hampered by planned obsolescence and the increasingly fast pace that new products are released at. It is very difficult and expensive to maintain actual experience with everything in a product space.
It can't be crowd sourced either because most people are overly attached to their purchases and can't give objective comparisons between something they don't own.