It seems you mainly have two level of expectations, one where you wish to find the best ever product for a specific niche you are ready to research and invest time into. And the other where you need to get recommendations and find 'the best product'.

In that sense I think Amazon falls in-between. Personally I'll use sites like thewirecutter or other review sites to get an idea of what's on the market and what I should be looking for. It's only from there that I'll hit an online merchant to see what they sell and at what price.

I get why it doesn't fit you style, it's a different approach.