Exclude tradesman based on his Google profile?

Basically, the title is somewhat misleading; the reason for exclusion would rather be his reaction.
The following case:
A craftsman offered me a service on MyHammer. He is new on the portal (or operating with a new account) and has 0 reviews. So I searched for his company on Google and looked at the reviews.
They paint a more than confusing picture. There are some very old reviews, all very bad (1 star). However, these do not seem real to me. They mostly come from reviewers who have written only that one review about this company and nothing else. Therefore, I consider these either competitor tactics or other fakes. Following those are new, a whole battalion of positive fake reviews. The company has over 40 reviews. I only checked them randomly but would estimate over 90% are fake. You can tell this mainly because almost all 5-star reviews come from "people" who a) think ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING and EVERYONE on Google is great, and b) that by coincidence all the people who think this craftsman is great also find the same ice cream cafe in xyz and the erotic massage studio in Hanover great. This is the classic signature of a Google profile that some marketing company has polished up.
I confronted the craftsman about the Google reviews.
His answer was simply, "Like fake news, I know nothing about it."
Somehow, now my sixth sense for caution tells me that I probably better not hire this craftsman. If he already reacts defensively to a simple inquiry about his Google profile, then I don’t know how well you get along with him if there should be any complaints about his work.
Moreover, I don’t consider his answer honest. People usually don’t write such fake positive reviews just for fun for someone. Companies usually pay for that, and therefore I am fairly certain that he knows about it.

Am I being too nitpicky, or is this understandable?

What kind of service is this? Are there competitors with better reviews?

Anyone working as a craftsman on MyHammer is not the cream of the crop

What is he supposed to do with you?

Just ask for reference projects and ask the client directly.

what kind of service is this? Are there competitors with better reviews? Anyone working as a craftsman on MyHammer is not the crème de la crème

Unfortunately not yet. We have the unpopular tender to install a washbasin and sink, where we would like to provide the materials ourselves (except for fastening material). For a craftsman company (which we know is good), I had previously requested this as a complete service, but they wanted to charge 1000€ for it and have so far been unable to answer my follow-up question about what exactly is included in the price. Basically, we just want 2 narrow "shelves" mounted on the long wall in the guest bathroom, and the washbasin should be installed on the top one (cutting a hole in one of the boards accordingly for the connections). I find 1000€ quite steep for that, or am I naive?

Whoever is active as a craftsman on MyHammer is not the cream of the crop

Is that really so? Good to know, I haven’t really dealt much with craftsmen before our house construction. In the past, I searched on MyHammer for a few small jobs (mostly wall mountings) and was usually satisfied. But that was a few years ago. Nowadays, the site feels a bit dead.

So first of all, you have done some good research. Based on your description, I would also bet that he bought a lot of positive reviews. Whether that now reflects his general behavior when awarding contracts is another matter. Clearly, he apparently had trouble in the past with a customer who also wanted to get back at him. As a small business, it is accordingly difficult to acquire new customers with such a "tainted profile," or it always requires a lengthy explanation if one even gets that far, because you are filtered out due to an average of 3 stars. Not everyone, especially if e-business is not the core area of the profile owner, then has the time and inclination or the resources to enforce appropriate removals on Google. In that case, one might (poorly) be advised to quickly offset the bad fake reviews with good fake reviews.

And to his reaction—well, what is he supposed to answer you? Yes, I committed review fraud because an unhappy customer/competitor tricked me?

Regardless, I would rather base the commissioning on the work to be done (small or large?), the range of offers (is he by far the cheapest?), and a more detailed discussion about the assignment and its execution itself.