Basically if a machine recommended it to you, its probably trash.

Goes for search results, AI, product recommendations, etc.

Please let me know where this unbiased, monetization-free version of Reddit is.

Reddit itself is monetized, but the people writing the review or suggesting products most likely weren't paid to recommend stuff. Not that there aren't paid shills on reddit, but as long as your BS meter is decent, a quick peek at the poster's profile can confirm whether the suggestions are legit.

It's a bit of work to weed out real testimonies but if you can collect a bunch of reviews and use your own judgement as a final filter. I think that's better than just clicking any of the "Top 10 <product>" sites that google shows on the first page.

Reddit works absolutely fine for this query so long as you dig a little, in the same way you once had to dig a bit for this kind of query on google search, back when it was good.

You just have to review enough threads on the subject to build up a picture and refine your search.

I did just this for noise cancelling headphones before Christmas and reddit was invaluable.

I'm not saying it's useless, only that it is neither unbiased nor free of monetization.