Nobody has thus far provided any evidence of a “botnet.”
To me, the 'profiles on the next generation of leaders, throughout their formative years' argument is stronger than the botnet one.
I don't particularly trust Google or Apple to firewall a malicious and determined nation-state actor (0 days being 0 days), but it seems lower probability than the technically trivial data collection.
Sometimes we aren't the boss and we don't get to see the evidence. That doesn't mean there isn't any.
Can you think of any reason a government engaged in cyberwarfare might want to ensure there was informational asymmetry? I sure can.