That's a generous interpretation.

I see it as just preparation for selling the space. After a few months of "tips" they go to companies and say, "hey, you know those tips we have in our PRs? You can be in every 10th one of them for X dollars?"

In media, we call that a House Ad.

I also get tons of helpful product recommendations and tips in my TV shows, every 20 minutes.

Advertisement, noun. A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.

There is no way they didn’t think they could sell those spots in the future.

“Ad” doesn’t mean “paid for”. A “tip” linking to some other place, injected into a place with no permission or context, is an “ad” in every meaningful sense (and if this “tip” system were left in place it would soon enough be turned into a pay-for explicit ad system). If someone at Microsoft deludes themselves that they are just trying to be helpful, that doesn’t change the impact and result of their actions.

First hit is always free