"This just in, publishers use marketing money to market to people"
I don't get why there is so much upset about this. This is a common thing in the YouTube world. People who have a large subscriber base get offers like this, even some smaller channels.
I've personally been approached by a production company for Sony just in the past month.
Also, no one is going to pay for negative marketing. As a publisher you can't say "Don't say bad things, we are paying you" but you can say "we won't pay you if you say bad things." So that is up to the YouTuber to decide, and *gasp* some of them may actually like and believe what they are talking about / showing.
Do you really think all those unboxing videos and early sneak peak of games from big name YouTubers aren't marketing by the publishers / creators?
As someone with a few friends in the industry, I hear this kind of stuff all the time. And there are plenty of CPM boosting things you can do if you choose to sell your soul / promote to your subscribers for some extra cash.