Exactly, and for around $1000 they got good bang for the buck. A reasonable expense for lots of publicity about an important issue.
Except exactly 0 articles were written outside of them writing an article about it themselves. Where is the 'lots of publicity'? They generate just as much when they write and article about anything in general.
It was also covered by MacRumors: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/09/24/eff-apple-park-banner-c...