Hi chip,
I completely agree with this sentiment. Knowing too little will almost always lead to poor choices but trying to learn too much can lead to poor choices as well and “paralysis by analysis”. The goal is to know just enough to recognize when you are dealing with knowledgeable people who have the experience, knowledge, and integrity to help “educate” you and help you make great choices and when you are dealing with people who will sell you anything they can based on “marketing stories”.
The guidelines are meant to give you “just enough” information to help you connect with the experts who already know what you would otherwise have to learn instead of having to become one yourself (which I don’t recommend).
You can see my thoughts on mattress reviews in post #13 here. In general they are not something I would pay much attention to as far as the quality, the value, or the suitability of a mattress. They can provide you with some limited information about the business itself though in some cases. Reading reviews is certainly not the same thing as meaningful mattress research.
I don’t know if I “endorse” them but we certainly do like ours. For us it’s a preference and luxury for things like reading, watching TV, working on the computer and such but we use it in the flat position to sleep (we’re side sleepers) and have no health conditions where it would be helpful so it really has no benefit for sleeping itself for us … it just something we like to have 
Phoenix