The article is so biased enough that can be simply ignored.
Because of COVID-19, it is obvious that everything has slowed down. Based on everything available, the only available non-flight activity that can earn elite status is credit card spending. These bloggers receive compensations from credit card issuers. In short - they are promoting for their own.
If this idea was so good, AA would have not dropped the idea (previously, AA MM can be earned by credit card spending).