I have the other perspective where I think that highly rated resellers have an incentive to share SMART results and ship good product. Perhaps its eBay centric, it has been my experience for used and refurbished electronics. If it’s any consolation, your perspective is likely what keeps the cost low for these sellers.
I used to be a Google News junkie, but I stopped using their products. Now, I have a more streamlined view via these two: https://www.newsminimalist.com/ https://www.boringreport.org/app
I think the issue is that TiKtok is just as bad as all the other social media and they are owned by a foreign adversary.
Foreign adversaries (ie China, Russia and America) use social media for influence campaigns on each other and therefore their social media platforms can’t be trusted. This is why Chinese people similarly can’t use Google or Facebook
IIRC, the music industry was in decline long before Spotify was made. The transition period before Spotify was just illegally downloading everything through Limewire/Kazaa/Napster etc.
Also, the reason podcasts make money is because they can produce something that brings audiences in on a weekly basis. The music industry OTOH has artists that make an album a year or less. It’s not as sustainable and it’s harder to sell ads against.
I don’t think more segmentation is a wanted solution by consumers either. Consumers would much rather use one app for all platforms than have to buy a different streaming service every time they want to listen to a new album.
Jumping on the forgejo love train