In those circumstances where home auditioning isn’t feasible, I’ll take my chances with other humans who can offer hands (Ears) on feedback. @hilde45 if your past experiences are different, I understand.
I totally agree with you. What I like about your post — and this was really the point I was trying to push — is that there is a middle ground between groundless opining with no empirical controls and strictly controlled listening conditions. And we should strive for that middle ground or at least acknowledge (and specify) the most salient conditions under which our aesthetic judgments are formed.