[spr93]

This kind of piece usually happens because of the following common industry practice:

A company's PR department (usually via an outside publicist) approaches a friendly (or likely friendly) journalist with an idea for the story. They promise special access to company information and lots of quotes for the story. Serious outlets won't let the company "help" with the drafting, but sometimes the company will provide proposed language for all or some of the story.

It's a good arrangement for the company and journalist. The company controls the narrative and plants stories that fit its current PR goals.

The journalist gets an easy piece--more or less pre-packaged and with minimal need to do their own investigation. Journalists have an incentive not to pose difficult questions or push back too hard: Those who do get a "bad" reputation with publicists, leaving them out of the running for future pre-packaged stories.

There are lots of variations on the above. Some aren't nefarious and the result is still good journalism.

And sometimes the result is a transparent puff piece.