It also feels like these things are making me more musically illiterate.
You see enough Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Imaginal Discs and the twenty yearly Trhä albums as super highly praised and something every music nerd should listen to, and forget what kind of music most people actually like... which if you go by the spotify charts, is a lot of slop! And if you go by the radio, it's mostly the same stuff since 1995.
You can also find rare legitimately interesting user curated lists with some kind of stated perspective.
Idk a better method than getting lucky with checking what lists your favourite albums are on, but I did find a gem titled something like "The First String" for stuff with interesting focus on guitar, which ranged from American Primitivism, noise improv, to Surf Rock from Egypt.