I think there are still sites and individuals I (possibly unfairly) think of in that way, but I don't think they're paid or anything like that - they just know how you have to act in order to keep your Konami contact(s). As I know too, after we lost ours years ago.
Without naming names (and please don't, because everyone I've spoken to from other community sites have honestly been such nice people, and are entitled to operate as they see fit, as are we) - within 24 hours of the announcement, certain people/collectives on Twitter went into overdrive with their tweets about the "big news". Whereas most of us tweeted / reacted in horror, certain places just said things like "big changes for PES", and it came across (to me and others I've spoken to privately) as
really blatantly trying to gloss over the bad news. (Compare that with
@Tom's RIP banner.

)
But those sites/individuals are simply "remaining professional", cos behind the scenes, you don't know what their conversations look like. And, again... The choice is, do that (communicate positive reactions, or neutral at worst), or you lose your contact, and your contact is your
one shot for your feedback to be heard.
Now, of course, our feedback has
never been heard. That's why, after years of maintaining a cordial relationship with the contact I had, I ended up letting my frustration get the better of me (in a manner that I truly regret) and severed ties with them, so that I could be "more honest" in an official capacity. But I made that decision despite knowing that attempts
were made to pass on that feedback. Ultimately, once it hit Japan, it never made it out of the inbox.
Why? Because it was made
very clear to the guy that
only feedback that could be demonstrably tied to financial loss would be reviewed. Stuff like, "there's a bug on old versions of Android that means you can't buy coins". Anything else, they said, would mean dev time for no financial benefit.
...and that's
exactly why we are here, where we are today. And it's why I'm sad that people are struggling to let go, and keep hoping for any good to come of this.