Why are most product reviews written in the first week. How to know what it’s like after a year?

I bought a pair of wireless earbuds a while back with 4.5 stars and thousands of reviews. Sound was great, battery was great, everyone loved them. Around month 8 the left bud started cutting out, and by month 10 it was dead. Warranty had ended two months earlier, of course...

When I went back to the reviews, I realized almost all of them were written within the first few days. “Amazing sound!” “Love the case!” Nobody comes back after 10 months to update their review, so the rating mostly tells you how the product feels out of the box, not whether it survives...

Now I scroll straight to the 1-star and 2-star reviews and sort by oldest or search for words like “months later,” “stopped working,” and “after a year.” That helps a bit, but it’s a lot of effort for something I’m just trying to buy.

It also feels like this applies to everything: backpacks where the zipper gives up, water bottles that start smelling weird, standing desks that begin wobbling. The stuff that matters most is exactly what a launch-week review can’t tell you...

How do you guys figure out what a product is like after the honeymoon phase? Do you trust reddit threads, YouTube “1 year later” videos, or just ask friends who own it?

And what’s something you bought that is still working perfectly after 2+ years? I want to build a list of things that actually last, not things that are just new and shiny...