Definitely thought it was ironic the NYT bought a “competitor” after constantly complaining about big tech doing it over the years.
You shouldn't conflate the New York Times Company with the people who write articles for the New York Times (or even its editorial board). They're not the same entity. Apologies if somehow that's not actually what you're doing, but my experience is when someone talks about the "NYT complaining" they're pretty much always talking about a general impression of its opinion pages.
Are you saying the people who write articles for the New York Times should muzzle themselves in many topic areas, so as to not be seen as being critical of anything the corporation they work may do?
For instance, this article, https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/400000-people-now-subscribe..., says that they had 400,000 digital subscribers in 2019. That's at most $33M/year, plus they also get some ad revenue. But Candy Crush Saga made $1.2B in 2021.
The NYT Crossword is also available in the newspaper and books, but this probably doesn't earn that much more than the electronic version.