Why did they chose the Apple ecosystem? Gruber's been in the ecosystem a long time, but Marco made a choice within the past ten years. It's not like they made the choice for no reason.
Where on the front page does Marco write a long form article where he bases his opinions on the opinions of others?
Lets think about this whole concept of being an Apple shill for a moment. Assuming they are Apple shills, why do you think they are? What drives them? What factors created the Apple shill? What do they gain by being an Apple shill?
Why do you think they care if the Surface does well? Because it would disprove some fragile mental modle they have where they place a more importance on aesthetics and interface than customizability and price? Why are they trying so hard to make Apple look good? Do they just think Apple's awesome without really thinking about it?
How many articles do you think Marco's read about packed Microsoft stores? Based on most of his articles, he writes about his experiences without generally using aggregate data to come to some conclusion about anything. Maybe you have an issue with his methods here, but I don't think you're likely to find him talk about other people's experiences, especially people who he likely doesn't read. (ie. He's not going to do much research into other articles about Microsoft stores before writing this story.) Maybe you don't like that, but he's consistent about it. If someone wants to look up every article about MS stores, his can be one data point.
Again, why do you think Gruber and Marco are actively trying to influence the sales of Apple devices? Do you think Gruber is doing it to get rich? He has a ton of stock and is trying to bump marketshare? I just can't find a reason that Marco and Gruber would directly lie about their thoughts on a product based on their predictions of future sales.
Where on the front page does Marco write a long form article where he bases his opinions on the opinions of others?