I don’t think influencers are really helping people discover scents, they’re just influencing people to have the same 10-15 scents and nothing curated or original.
Sadly i definitely think they’re running the show for now. I removed myself from the reddit fragrance communities once I saw too many “what does my collection say about me” posts, to refrain from commenting “it tells me that you’re being influenced”.
I focus on reviewers who ALSO don’t focus on new releases, as encouraging people to dive back into past scents is really what helps discovery imo, especially when the scent profiles are not trending anymore.