Thing is how do you differentiate between a bunch of people who genuinely like a product and are happy to say so because it's solved a problem for them that they see other people having, and "subtle spam"?
For instance, I'm a Kagi subscriber and have been for some months now as it's doing a good job for me, and I've had the odd person leap down my throat accusing me of being a corporate shill etc, and I am absolutely not (but that's what a shill would say!!!)
How does anyone get a product recommendation from a product that's genuinely growing in popularity so people are recommending it? I get there needs to be a healthy dose of cynicism but where does the line get drawn to the point where that cynicism is no longer "healthy" and simply means everyone distrusts everything that's made by a company if somebody on the internet says it's good?
Where's the equal cynicism when somebody says something is shit and it could be a corporate shill from a competitor?