How to tell which exoplanet discoveries are truly groundbreaking vs incremental?

[Natalie.J]

As an amateur astronomer, I've been captivated by the flood of exoplanet discoveries from missions like TESS and JWST, but the sheer volume of data and the shift from mere detection to atmospheric characterization has left me struggling to stay informed on what's truly significant. I read about another "potentially habitable" world, but the criteria seem to vary, and I'm unsure how to interpret terms like "mini-Neptune" or "super-Earth" beyond their basic size classifications. For fellow enthusiasts and those with more expertise, how do you parse the latest findings to understand which discoveries are genuinely groundbreaking versus incremental? What are the most reliable sources for keeping up with not just the announcements but the ongoing analysis of these distant worlds, and are there any particular recent discoveries that you think have fundamentally changed our understanding of planetary formation or the potential for life?