Counterpoint: not reading/watching reviews is a waste of time.

I don't buy things very often. Especially not in the > $100 category. I don't want to waste time on things that are subpar, but I also don't want to get hobby-grade knowledge of every item I buy. So if I can rely on folks like The Wirecutter to review things for me then I can check them out before I make a purchase and gain some confidence in my purchase for only a few minutes of my time.

Sure, I may get a fluke. I may have an issue with a product from time to time. In the fields they review that overlap with my own hobby interests I may disagree with them over nitpicky details. But those are exceptions, and I can trust myself to catch them. For 90+% of the use case, reviewers are a great use of a few minutes of time.