As I said earlier. Those press kits aren't any different than sending a wad of money with the review copy.
And that goods are exchanged for money is not a hypothetical in the writing industry.
I think it was Jeff Green that told the story that when he first started for a magazine the different editors would take their free books they got from the various companies they were covering and traded them in at book shops that gave you the money instead of vouchers for the trade-in.
(Hopefully I'm not wrong with specifics, but it definitely was told on GFW Radio.)
Of course that doesn't mean that everyone that gets these press kit things does it. A large group of people will probably adorn their office if they are fans of the game. And if the office is full it will be thrown away.
A lot of people will throw it out immediately or give it to friends that are into these things.
Some give it away to their audience using various contests.
Most non-personalized gifts do however have a monetary value attached to them and the less scrupulous people might end up selling it on Ebay.
And this seemingly impropriety is a very real thing to me. Now that I'm aware of the expensive flag that went to Giant Bomb I want to know who ends up with it. I would call it curiosity, they would probably call it jealousy. ;-)
From the looks of "I love Mondays" they seem to get a lot of that shit. They got a faux oil painting promoting "The Walking Dead". They don't seem to really care about any of it though. It would be nice if they gave some of it away to fans, but I don't know if they are just not allowed to or what.
CGW/GFW have given away things they got from publishers using contests. I'm sure GB could do it if they cared enough.
It sucks so hard that I wasn't aware of CGW/GFW while they were still alive and that I'm on a different continent. They were the best.