Here is a quote cut & pasted from the article:
"Google didn't respond to a request for comment from me."
So the article details the attempt and failure of the devs to contact Google, and the author's attempt and failure to contact Google. What do you want, a seance?
How is it not journalism? The story is admittedly one-sided but only because Google won't communicate with anyone. The author and the article's subject both reached out to Google and got no reply at all.
That is the story. Google is threatening to remove non-shady apps for reasons that are entirely mysterious.
I'm not surprised either. When a free service asks you to fill out a profile, what do you think they're doing with that info? Not making Christmas card lists.