The issue with that is that oftentimes by the time something has been used for years, the manufacturer has discontinued the model, or even worse, kept the same

The issue with that is that oftentimes by the time something has been used for years, the manufacturer has discontinued the model, or even worse, kept the same model number and did some cost engineering to make the new version less durable. I agree with you though that a lot of reviews are useless fluff like shipping speed and packaging, and that there should be a better way to evaluate products.