If I’ve picked up the record in a record store I’ll generally have listened to a few seconds of each song in the store just to check there’s no egregious pops or skips before buying it. Then I’ll take it home and (since I’m apparently incapable of buying just one record at a time) listen to the new records I’ve bought one after the other whilst adding them to my discogs at the same time.
Sometimes however I’m looking for a specific pressing of a record (often for limited edition pressings or if a certain pressing is known to sound noticeably better than others) and then I’ll be typically buying from someone on discogs in which case I’ll have done extensive searching to find the best quality, lowest price (including shipping) copy of what I’m looking for taking into consideration what other records I might want that the seller is also selling (because once again I’m incapable of buying just one record at a time).
I almost never read album reviews because if I like an album, I’m not overly bothered what someone else thinks about it.
I think some of the super high end cartridges will certainly open up after being broken in. Things like this video go through the first hundred or so hours of the Hana Umami Red.