You gotta know who you're watching though. Alton Brown hates flavor, for example, while Claire Saffitz thinks milk chocolate is good. Within their zone this is a good move but you gotta be within their zone. The America's Test Kitchen crew are almost the most useful because you know they made that recipe at least a half dozen different ways and whether or not you like it, you know that they'll fuckin' die on the hill that the interpretation they wrote down is the best (for countless reasons they will happily enumerate). You also know that if you go harder or softer in any direction it'll be fine, so long as it's nothing they've called out as mission-critical. A lot of the time you make their recipes and go "...eh" but you can also go "I see you say a clove and a half of garlic, this means nine cloves" and come out ahead without trial and error.