Of course, nothing is perfect. But, as you said it yourself, this forum is a good place to get reliable info about a sportsbook. Yes, there are sites doing honest reviews, but most websites with casino ratings hardly can be trusted. What I've noticed is that they can include 3-4 really good sites in their top 10, and then put on the 2nd, or even on the first place, the shady site that paid them, and since there's no forum there, you won't see any objections.
This is something I have noticed as well, they try to give credibility to their list by adding casinos that we all know have a very good reputation, but they also add casinos no one has ever heard about and what they hope is that people follow their links and then join that casino, not only they probably get a higher commission out of it, but since the only casinos which will do something so dubious are the ones that scam their customers they can probably offer even more incentives to those review websites so they are placed on such a high position on their rankings.
Good point, it can be done by scammers small amount or even decent amount of payment to reached a good spot from casino reviews can bring them gamblers to use their platforms, it will be easy for those scam facilitators to runaway with the gamblers money once they start to use and deposit decent amount of money.
Nothing can be safe aside from doing your own research and allow yourself to use the platform and experienced how the owners works with their gamblers.
It's always on your decision how to select and pick what is best for your gambling needs.