How do you actually judge whether another investor is worth following?

I’ve been spending some time looking at other people’s portfolios and public trades recently, partly to learn and partly to get a sense of how others approach things.
But the more I look, the harder it feels to judge what actually matters. Some people show strong returns, but it’s not always clear how much risk they took to get there. Others look more consistent but less impressive at first glance.
It made me realise I don’t really know what I should be paying attention to when evaluating someone else’s approach.

For people who’ve been doing this longer, what signals actually matter when you’re looking at another investor’s performance?