I've heard it's good to soft launch an app in one small country before releasing to the whole market. The idea is if we discover problems in the app in that market, we will have a chance to improve the app before launching in the US and entire world. My question: can users in the US see the reviews of an app launched in another country? If so, what is the point of soft launching? If the app gets bad reviews, even if I improve things and re-launch for the US market, the users will see the bad reviews from before and probably not want to download the app.
Soft launching in in one small country
I think you're looking at an industry buzz phrase, not a general iOS (this is about iOS, right?) tactic.
Why not do your best, then pound on it via TestFlight, instead, and not use the store as a testing service. Or....use promo codes and a controlled sample group.
As for reviews - why focus so tightly on them at this point - what makes you think you'll get any (or any that are near actionable) at all - put that nervous energy into making the best app you can, and don't put so much weight on something that may not have any relationship to reality at the end of the day.