Someone should do a study on how having access to your reviews in real time impacts the psychology of modern writers.
It certainly impacts you materially: when you're out on sub, one of the first things editors will do is search how many reviews your last book has on amazon. Positive or negative doesn't seem to matter as much as quantity, "engagement."
Amazon will also let you know your sales rank on an hour to hour basis. If you are looking for a way to anxiously speculate on your future career prospects, this can be quite the little rollercoaster.
Teen Killers in Love has sat at 55 reviews for the last month. It climbs the charts, according to royalty statements people are buying it, but alas. Only 55 people have "engaged" with it.
I should probably not read my reviews, but I do. I fantasize about what it must be like to have more reviews than you can keep count of. Probably at that level, authors completely unplug from the response and just work on new material. A little fish like me, I am still looking for evidence that I should keep going.
After my debut came out in the middle of the pandemic and my publisher said "yeah no we don't need any more of this series", the glowing reviews I got from readers were everything to me. And over time, word of mouth and people making the time to share how much they loved Teen Killers Club got the entire series published. This series literally would not exist without its fans.
Having seen firsthand how much positive reviews matter, I've gotten a lot more aggressive about leaving glowing 5 star reviews for smaller works and their authors.
If you have five minutes today, consider writing a review for a book you love which no one seems to know about. You will be making someone's dream come true.