The essential points have already been well made. @ghasley ’s point is spot on. The SEC is publicly going after social media influencer investment “advisors” for their pump and dump schemes…as someone who works in that space, I am continually shocked at who and what people believe.
This is audio, the stakes are much lower and the reality is there’s a lot of good gear out there. So if someone buys off a poorly credentialed “reviewer’s” recommendation, odds are they are not going to receive a heap of junk…but if they’re buying largely based on an influencer’s showmanship (or even this forum), they’re probably not doing as well as they could be doing, for their taste and budget.
That said, not everyone has the time, the patience or the crazy to serially home demo gear (lol I cop to a higher than avg crazy level)…so with the rise of internet hifi shucksters, ironically the best thing may be to find a dealer you can trust, who cares about your long term happiness and isn’t going to oversell you (or undersell you!)