Yes, I do this too. Also I've found a few good sources of rec lists - copperbadge posts quality rec lists from time to time, thefourthvine used to post tons of recs in a variety of fandoms and her archives are well worth trawling (although there are a lot of broken links after all this time, so sometimes things are hard/impossible to find).

I don't really like searching tags unless I'm looking for a specific, rare thing that won't have hundreds or thousands of hits.