This seems to me a "least bad option" case. The alternative is that they'll do it without showing their colours, so you won't even know that it's a possibly bia

This seems to me a "least bad option" case. The alternative is that they'll do it without showing their colours, so you won't even know that it's a possibly biased edit. Corporations are also frequently under attack on Wikipedia, so that they want to do some kind of reputation management is quite understandable. Better they do that openly and have to be clear in their intentions, than that it's hidden.