The author of tfa refers to r/ultralight, but fails to note the capacity reported there. Then he writes (or generates) an "article" that might be advertisement, making emphasis on price and fleetingly mentioning the brand products. It doesn't feel sincere.
Liz is a lady, and I am confident she did not AI generate this article. Aside from it clearly having her authorial voice, here is another piece she has written:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/23/24326077/i-asked-chatgpt
> Aside from it clearly having her authorial voice, [...]
LLMs are pretty good at imitating styles, if asked to do so. It's just their default style that's easy to recognise.
(You are probably right in everything you say! I just wanted to point out that style of an article isn't necessarily a giveaway.)