I don't know if it's true, but the comments I'd seen were that he's one of a number of influencer types who are little more than a mouthpiece for the manufacturer.
Half the reason they are at all the events is because they do and say what the companies tell them to, I can't for the life of me see why people actually watch their stuff, you're not getting an honest opinion it's just a lengthy advert in a different format.
Essentially that's true. Most of them don't really know very much about cars, so are basically just regurgitating press information without any objectivity, though I suspect it is more underhand in some cases. I can't imagine all of them are paying for these cars, so there must be some heavy discounts or leasing going on somewhere.
That RS Jamie was running around in a white Fiesta ST with tiger stripes that was "hers", but I saw it at a dealer training event, so it was actually a Ford fleet car of some sort by the looks of it.
As the controversy surrounding Litchfield and the GR Yaris showed, it's a pretty murky world. You can't blame the influencers in a way though. If they can get into the launch scene and travel the world, they'd be mad to say no in a way. They don't need to worry about credibility in the same way as a "proper" motoring hack, as their audience seemingly don't care.
Watching a lot of these channels, I do have to wonder what their audience does actually care about. The production quality is usually pretty shite, the presenter usually doesn't know anything about cars other than what the brochure says, and most of them can't drive. When you compare it to what the likes of Carfection are doing, it does make you wonder what people actually get from it, but I guess it's all about the lifestyle thing, and people wanting to follow and try to emulate them.