Maybe. But a vendor not getting rid of such fake negatives (which is said to be easily possible) is at least a bad sign of apathy and neglect from the vendor.

And since not buying is the safer choice anyways, the existence of fake negatives isn't that much of a problem.

You prefer vendors who manipulate reviews over ones who focus on the product and service?

I do prefer a vendor who gets rid of obvious fake reviews. As always, I can only hope they leave the legitimate ones alone. But in general, a vendor should at least read and handle reviews, leading immediately to a better product and service. Reviews are the simplest way for a customer to provide feedback. And some review hygiene, removing the fake ones, is also part of customer service, enabling the customer to get an objective impression.

One-offs, maybe, but trends are less likely to be fake. For example, when buying a dryer, I looked at many 1-2 star reviews for each product to spot the problems that most people reported. Finally I found one where the only problem frequently reported was that the lint trap would snap in half after a couple of years, because of the plastic hinges. No other problems, and the replacement lint traps were easy to acquire, so I could live with that.

> trends are less likely to be fake

I understand why someone would think that, and I do it myself too, but do we have evidence that it's true?

probably not the ones with the device failing documented by photos.