Such claims cannot be trusted as long as these news drive the heat score and hype of the companies, because these will always be inherently subjective, even unconsciously to what they want to believe. Is it real or is it LARP
Increasingly more of it, as we become more saturated with information. Image-maxxing is probably a more modern term.
Pretending that the thing you want to be true is true so people who don't have the attention bandwidth assume it's true. Similar to a foam sword I guess.