The ability to validate every claim that cites academic research as an individual is impossible, tho. Some people don't even have the opportunity to attain a high school level of education, if any formal education at all. Granted, they tend to have more immediate problems, but the point stands that the quantity of people who can even understand deep statistical analysis and p values and the flaws of depending on them as a method of determining the quality of the data and/or validity of the paper as a whole... Is vanishingly small compared to the 7 billion (and rapidly counting) people on the planet.
Perfection is the enemy of good enough. People talk about analysis paralysis here frequently enough that it should be clear that this principle applies to infosec and privacy, too.
No methodology of meta-analysis is perfect. No methodology of even the most basic research is perfect.
Broadly speaking, consensus follows the data that is widely accessible at the time. Consensus that the world was flat was at best highly contested in the pre-colonial days, and it was definitely demolished not long after the Gutenberg press revolutionized the spread of information, ideas, and data.
We have the internet, now. And for all its flaws and pitfalls, its still a revolutionarily fast way of communication.
(I'm trying really hard to keep this on-topic, I promise, bear with me)
It is highly, highly unlikely, even with the rampant cherry-picking and corruption that I will without a doubt admit is a serious and widespread problem, that "Joe Schmo; Fledgling Privacy Guy" is going to have the training, experience, discipline, and time to do what you are suggesting.
This is why experts exist. This is why science communicators exist. And this is why THIS FORUM exists.
To disseminate, to the best of our ability, the most widely accepted ideas and techniques to those who don't have time, ability, or opportunity to figure it out or verify it themselves.
Trust is a simple fact if life and a necessity if anything is to ever be done.
All we can reasonably ask is that Jo Schmo do his best to listen carefully and figure out what works best for him.