[hn_version_0023]

You've missed the 2nd definition of shill:

shill verb: 2 : to act as a spokesperson or promoter "the eminent Shakespearean producer … is now shilling for a brokerage house" — Andy Rooney

shill noun: 1b : one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shill

If you're going to choose to be pedantic, it helps to read the entire definition, and not just paste in the top result from DDG's "define shill"

[lowbloodsugar]

Pretty sure that to be a shill, your relationship to the thing being promoted has to be hidden. We don't refer to marketing folks as shills. Parasites maybe, badum-ching.

[mediocregopher]

I refer to anyone trying to get me to use a particular product as "shilling", including marketing folks.