I have noticed in life that my assessment of the goodness of a thing often reflects my expectations going in to it. If I anticipated it a lot, perhaps due to "reviews", I often find it to be mediocre, or disappointing, or even not very good. I heard all the rave reviews about "Hamilton" for example, and as I noted before really wanted to walk out after 10 minutes. As for restaurants, I notice IF someone says "This place is great", I may find it "OK", but not transcendent.
So, when I stumble onto exceptions, and some place is highly "rated" by whoever, and I find it indeed is great, or to my liking, I figure I probably am on to something.
Likewise, if we try something that looks to be "maybe OK to not so good", I may be surprised on the upside and OVER rate it. Then next time I go back, I might find it somewhat meh, still not bad, but not great.
The Girl and Fig restaurant in Sonoma is a good example. I had been told it was almost like the French Laundry, and was exceptional. We went with another couple, and I was expecting to be somewhat let down, in fact, in my view, it was exceptional. And not ridiculously pricey. It was really really good.
the girl & the fig | French Restaurant in Sonoma, CA (thegirlandthefig.com)
the girl & the fig | French Restaurant in Sonoma, CA (thegirlandthefig.com)My wife kept talking up this three star place in Marseille and insisting I go with her and her daughter, and maybe I was in a "fowl" mood or something, after being told I HAD to do. (I dislike being told I HAD to do a thing.) (No, I don't. Except death and taxes.)
Around here, I'm trying to go to different places, it's not easy because we have our favorites. So, we stopped at the Cypress Bar Badge had mentioned (finally), and I thought it would be decent bar food, but it was a notch above that, on a par with the place next door we like.
So, if someone is running around the country trying to "rank" BBQ places, they probably suffer from this as well. They go to X which everyone says is fantastic, and they think it's just OK, and vice versa.