Are many audiophiles only seeking approval of the next purchase?

Probably some.

I use reviews, form information and audio friends as a sounding board mostly. When I'm looking to make an upgrade or side step I like to have as much information about the items I'm looking at as possible. I take every comment I read with a grain of salt of course. I don't trust everyone but I'm also not able to listen to everything I'm interested in so its nice to use others experiences and trials for what they offer. Also sometimes I learn something from others about a different product I was not aware of or a product mismatch that I had not considered.

If 5 people say this item sounds warm and one says its harsh I'm going to go with warm sounding not harsh, but keep in the back of my head what maybe is causing it to be harsh on that one persons system so I can avoid that combo.... for example. I'm sure most of us do something similar

Learn form others mistakes and experiences when you can is always better then forging ahead into the unknown reinventing the wheel over and over.