I think this is an interesting subject, and I agree with different aspects of what everyone else has said. As someone who comes from a sort of joint arts-and-science background, I try to apply both a scientific understanding of the limits of, and biases inherent in, human conclusion formation, on one hand, together with an appreciation for the subjective nature of any kind of creative/artistic/culinary experience. And what I mean by that, is that I'm very epistemological in my approach to decision-making, in general - what constitutes actual knowledge, and by what means would we acquire it, and how would we know if we did? There are ways to do so, but nothing is perfect - we try to go with what has the highest probability of being true (or of being a tea we would enjoy) but at the end of the day, we can't ever be sure until we try it.
As a result, I tend to do a lot of research and look at lots of different perspectives and try to weight those perspectives as best as I can. One thing I think is important is that I don't necessarily need to believe someone's experience or tastes will be or are the same as mine, so much as I need to see that that person's perspective is based on real experience and is a "truly-held thing". In other words, that the person's perspective is genuine and that they are presenting a considered opinion of their experience with the tea. I don't know about anywhere else in the world, but in the U.S. superlatives have become almost devoid of all meaning. I blame an economy organized around maximizing consistency over diversity of experience or a true reflection of the highs and lows that actually exist, and it is true for all of us that the parameters by which we form judgements are defined by the information and experience we have. People with little experience are more likely to be missing overall context in judging something's quality and when the range of possibilities is limited, call things "Amazing!" that may or may not present themselves as such to others. And someone who is not approaching the tea in a truly appreciative way will usually show in how they talk about it.
One of the difficulties is that while, on the one hand, we all (I think) acknowledge "good tea" as an objective reality exists in some sense, it's also true that the borders of these definitions are fuzzy and open to subjective interpretation. But if I can see that someone is engaging with the tea in an honest way and has experience then I will at the very least add that perspective to my "pile" of things to consider. And if, as is the case with several folks on this board, many people who fit that description all seem to have a positive view of either a vendor or a seller or another user's opinions, I will usually give that additional weight. I rarely ask directly for recommendations from anyone and tend to be a self-searcher, but will try to find many perspectives to build a more holistic "model". People who are clearly knowledgeable but who do not push or throw that knowledge around also get extra credence from me. People who think they know everything are often the least knowledgeable but the most insecure about needing to seem to be expert. The most knowledgeable have nothing to prove and know any knowledge they have comes from having at some time in the past admitting that they didn't know.
In the end, though, all I can do is gather information, ask questions (or research the answers myself in forum archives, other websites, sites purporting to provide information, etc.), review a vendor's sales pitch and sales model, consider my own tendencies, and make a reasonable choice about what is likely to be a good pick. I consider the third item very important - different vendors are very obviously taking different approaches with different marketing (from a ton to almost none) and, in some cases, a different picture of what they want us to believe we're saying about ourselves when we buy tea from them. And I also try to take reviews on vendor websites with a grain of salt - a good example is Yunnan Sourcing. I like YS, I've bought from them in the past and they fulfill a very useful role in being sort of the "superstore" of the online Chinese tea world. But any website I visit where almost every review is a rave review essentially makes me doubt not the vendor but the reliability of those leaving the reviews, kind of going back to the concept of overuse of superlatives.
I feel like I've said a ton and yet am sort of all over the place - basically, recommendations are a useful piece of building that model where the output is hopefully tea we will enjoy, but it's just a piece and we have to consider human limitations and psychology when using them. And I rarely solicit direct recommendations, instead preferring to do a lot of reading and a lot of digging. And sometimes I will follow what others seem to say is a good tea and other times I will buy something others say is not good because I want to see for myself and also have that learning experience. No one can build up our experience for us. And then sometimes I buy things that are completely outside my comfort zone and about which I know little just to force myself to stay diverse and keep chipping away at that block of "tea ignorance". And also sometimes i just randomly buy something on impulse because what the hell, why not?
