This is the problem. Anyone fighting for good has to be an holier than thou angel who doesn't ask for your email while those on team evil are forgiven for being several peeping toms in a trenchcoat, along with all their other sins.
But. If the author in his article literally writes
> Every experience demands our email address, and giving out our email address adds another email to inboxes already stuffed with two types of spam
And then - in the same article! - brings up a pop-up asking for the reader's email in order to spam their inbox, then the author absolutely is a hypocrite and a shill, and absolutely deserves to be called out for it.