Arriving at this thread late, but we have never paid a reviewer and it’s unlikely we ever will. For reviewers like Linus Tech Tips and other YouTubers who do a mix of sponsored and non-sponsored reviews (and provide a clear disclaimer of which ones are which), we’ve only followed the non-sponsored path.

We discussed investment with Linus only after his review, and before making a decision on it, he brought it in front of his community to flag the risks of future conflicts of interest. Since completing the investment, he has also continued to flag that potential conflict in additional videos he has posted.

None of them, they're being massively hyperbolic and disingenuous because a piece of hardware isn't perfect the first iteration thus the reviewers who think a great device is great must be paid.

None of them did. I think this person is just making that up.

Not that I agree with the characterization, but they might be referring to Linus Sebastian of Linux Tech Tips, who invested a bunch of money into the company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSxbc1IN9Gg