YMMV. I've been noticing that it's harder to find the actual thing I'm looking for when cheap knock offs are prevalent. My most recent search was for a specific brand of rat trap, but page after page of Amazon search showed products where I was unable to authenticate the product, and reviews suggested that knock offs were being sent to at least some customers. I ended up finding it easier to drive to the local Home Depot than digging through reviews trying to find the right seller to buy from.

Also a common Amazon profit maximizing trick (aka scam) is to sell a legitimate product, build up 5 star reviews then switch to a cheaper knock off and let the momentum take you as long as it can. Rinse and Repeat. Before I buy anything of consequence I sort reviews by date, and look for this pattern to save me headaches.

Try any search for a phone accessory like "mobile phone vr headset" or "usb battery pack".

Well, I see some products listed that I would not want to buy. But I also see the Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream, and some USB battery packs that seem perfectly good. (In fact, I bought one of these results just the other week, and am very happy with it.) And generally, speaking, the star ratings are about what I would expect of most of these products, given my (modest) knowledge of these brands. Certainly the star ratings, generally speaking, appear to convey useful quality information.

But what I certainly don't see is any support for the claim that "All that ever pops up when I search for a product is cheap chinese knockoffs with round numbers of mysterious, broken english, 5 star reviews and one pixelated photo."