As @GPM said above, I believe personal reference is the best. Reels are reels are reels. And maybe that’s how you get your gig and cool and yeah, obviously you want the best reel you can have. But soooo many reels I’ve seen- you have zero idea what someone actually did on it, how much was plug and play setups from some killer lead artist, how much was compositing vs finishing, so you end up with no real way to judge someone’s skill level or specialities. Though, most importantly, you’ve got no way to tell how they are to work with. I think you just keep grinding at stuff, meet more and more people, and then show up and do your thing. My reel probably looks lame as hell to people, by the way.
Edit: I also have to add, that when I first read the title of this thread, I was like “ohhh I remember @cnoellert hates the reels view. Reels debate about to come in hot, gonna grab the popcorn” LOL