I, too, search "<search term> + reddit" often for product reviews and such. Thing is, the results on that front have started to slide as the paid review side of the internet catches on. I'm finding that it's getting harder and harder to trust the reddit search results - lots of shill accounts and obvious junk. That's not a google problem, specifically, but it's another degradation of a workaround for declining search result quality :(
Usually I trust Reddit threads where users give pros/cons of multiple competing products. Things like running shoes users have usually tried a lot out and liked them for different reasons. If those match with the one pair I've tried out it seems like a useful data point for decision making.
Yeah, a lot of subreddits are clogged with the same bad info that's gotten all over Google's front page. The stickied "list of recommendations" on an enthusiast sub is just the same as you'd get from clicking the top result of "Best X 2022" on Google, complete with affiliate links
That's not the point - the point is that paid shills are astroturfing reddit enthusiast subreddits, so that operator doesn't shield you at all. Once a hobbyist subreddit gets big enough, it attracts a lot of attention from shady types trying to capitalize on the captive audience. I've seen it happen numerous times (only when the offender is caught) in the /r/watches subreddit, the /r/overlanding subreddit, etc.
