Many scientists believe that the peer review process is essential to ensure that what is being published is sound and reliable. Nevertheless, we are constantly reminded of how easy it is to “outsmart” the peer review process of top scientific journals: https://retractionwatch.com/. There are little repercussions for those that do it (if they are caught!). Even worse, there is a feeling that, sometimes, editors of journals turn a “blind eye” and “fast-track” publication of manuscripts as long as the submitted research fits a certain narrative (the famous case of fish-microplastics paper!): https://retractionwatch.com/2017/12/07/author-controversial-science-fish-microplastics-paper-committed-intentional-misconduct-says-uppsala/ But what makes a review credible? Does that mean that you can trust the findings of a paper just because that paper passed the peer review?
To answer your primary question in short, "no", just because a paper is peer reviewed does not mean that you can trust the findings, since there are literally hundreds of other factors to take into consideration!
I cover the peer review extensively in my paper "Writing for Publication for Students and University Staff, Action Plan for Postgraduate Studies" available on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342549330_Writing _for_Publication_for_Students_and_University_Staff.
The paper also covers a number of other factors to consider in relation to your questions.
The issue of credibility of reviews is important. But all this is within a certain unwritten social contract.
As this article from Nature shows, it is easy to misuse this trust
Article Predatory journals recruit fake editor
Even if an article is published in a prestigious peer-reviewed journal, I will always question if something sounds or looks fake or contains important flaws. Peer-review is not perfect, unfortunately, but it most of the time (not always) assures the quality of the articles published.
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