[Kevin]

Alan,
I can vouch as a buyer of many varied instruments the experience you describe happens over and over and all the time. Some items I thought I hated I now love. Some I couldn’t wait to purchase left me feeling strangely flat.
Sometimes leaving an instrument in a store and coming back a week later it’s a different sonic world.
The YouTube phenomena has increased my buying mania by allowing me to see and hear instruments I never come across in person.
there are at least a dozen factors that affect the sound you hear, mic placement, distance, recording gear and on and on.
It helps when the same person does a side by side comparison.
As far as first time buyers I think it can be a guide in a broad general sense. They can at least identify particular sounds they don’t like and narrow their choices.
Think for instance of a Suzuki Andes. If you saw one listed in with the other melodicas something about it’s look or price point my draw a first time buyer to it. Any quick listen to a YT video though and you realize it’s quite a different instrument sonically from your typical melodica.
So yes I think comparison videos have their place as long as you realize the limitations.
That’s why a good return policy is such a great on-line buying luxury.