Fucking surveillance OS will monitor your phone and report to CCPee if you have questionable apps like VPN installed. CCPee will call you to uninstall those apps.
It doesn't make much difference, because the mainlander Tiongs already live inside the Great Firewall and apps like Baidu, Wechat/QQ already does most of the surveillance. Although using an iPhone makes it more tolerable, because of no preinstalled Chinese crapware on them.
Most of the 'tech reviewers' are nothing more than clickbait merchants, so it is not surprising they also put in a good word for Chinese phones for a price.
Some Android phone manufacturers have also started using famous 'Youtube tech influencers' to hype up their phones when they are announced. This is a recent trend.