Being rich with lots of money doesn't entitle you to free shit whatsoever. Especially if you want to get an early unit meant for FEEDBACK and REVIEW purposes. This is completely petty on his part and just screams of "ugh why didn't i get one i have high sub counts :(" which is a thing I almost did when I was starting out my website due to me thinking that giving feedback to games and being willing to play them entitled me to a code, and lemme just say as someone who's gotten tons of review copies and worked with lots of companies since fixing up my act and learning how not to start a review site, and learning the proper way of doing things: Fucking don't. PR companies won't tolerate your shit. They don't mind feedback, even negative, even companies whos games I blasted hard due to being unplayable messes, still let me write my review the way it is since I'm giving feedback. The only feedback they won't like is if it includes defamation and outright slander, which applies to pretty much anything. They're more than willing to work out with you, more than willing to understand delays in your review if you keep them updated often, more than willing to answer any questions you need, and more than willing to help.
They won't like it if you act entitled to review copies just because you're popular/big/get games from them often in the past, or even worse, ask for a bunch of shit at once, without covering the older games they sent you without any updates on where those reviews are. PR reps are human too, and thus they would almost certainly laugh at this guy's behavior and way of handling the situation, with him acting like "because I was a REALIST they DENIED me MY review unit!"
All reviews have terms and conditions. They're called embargoes. Even if it's as basic as "don't spoil the story or talk about ____ ___ or ___ before ___", they have to be followed, they don't compromise the review or score in any way. You can still express your honest opinion while following said restrictions, EASILY. And even, double check with the PR rep if you want to be super careful and have them look over your review if you're worried.
Yeah I know a few switches leaked via early shipments and other means before the launch and that's what led to UI leaks and the like. Nintendo were very pissed about it. There was this youtube gameplay channel that posted gameplay of a lot of nintendo switch games, awfully handy at around the time reviewers would get their copies, or even often before the retail release date, which would at times be before the review copies went out.
It was later found out this youtuber just downloaded pirated dumped versions of a bunch of games the moment they hit file sharing sites, solely so he could be the "first" to make videos on the subject even if they predated review copies, (Since review copies are digital and not physical, physical leaks can predate digital codes) which led to him getting blacklisted big time.
