Seems like the same problem with apps as with users. Just because I "trust" an app doesn't mean it's qualified to recommend any other app. Neither Breedlove nor Coracle should be trusted to recommend a hardware wallet, but I would trust Wallet Scrutiny or Odell. The difference is that while businesses have more resources to make good recommendations, they also have more perverse incentives to choose recommendations that make them money.
Discussion
That's why I like the idea of showing the list of people that you know that endorse/follow the target (app, podcast, mint...)
Among those people, maybe you'll find the developers you trust, maybe you'll find the podcasters you trust, depending on the use case.
The alternative is to build specified competency/recommendation events for each relevant topic/category, but who chooses the categories?
Yeah, that's the real sticky question
True.
Ideally there's a separate market of Verifier services (payed by user or builder). I just think it's smart to bootstrap that market from the dev side and not from "which users follow what apps".
It's like buying a new car and letting a mechanic that you trust do check up on it's quality.