I understand that the vast majority of reviewers on the internet, and certainly the sites that come up first in search engine results, are compensated by the manufacturers via kickbacks.

I believe it's colloquially known as a "racket."

Is there any good work being done on solving this problem? "Verified buyer" exists on larger sites but it doesn't solve for kickbacks. Looking only at reviews written by people closer to you socially also doesn't work since at that critical proximity there aren't enough reviews.

Consumerreports is still independent and really useful, I think.

The Verge has been doing this for the EULAs of the products that they review, which I'm a huge fan of. Search for "agree to continue" on this page for example: https://www.theverge.com/21286687/motorola-moto-e-2020-g-fas...

But yeah, I wish more reviewers would do this, especially now that DRM and EULAs are finding their way into what were previously dumb appliances.

Some do, IIRC Rtings list and score points for "Ad Free" as one of their many review categories.

They do. I was well aware of the ad stuff on my last Samsung TV before I bought it, since most review sites mentioned it.