How does he get paid by Apple?
I thought he earned his living from $11,000/week blog sponsors and whatever he earns from the podcast.
If Apple are paying him to cover them then yes, that's a grift. Is that happening?
(I know they send him review hardware because he discloses that in his posts.)
As I said, this is not something I will discuss publicly. But what I can say is that Apple wouldn't be the first tech company to pay for certain stories to be written, as I'm sure you're aware. There was a time when Apple needed John (along with his apparent "unbiased" takes). John's blog was critical for a period of time.