Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s a developer writing about a tool they like. If you’d call word of mouth an “ad” the I guess it’s one.
Why do you think marketing is not sophisticated? Here I’ll offer my services. I’ll pretend to do a technical deep dive of your app for X amount. No one will know, I’ll just act super interested. When the fuck did anyone ever go “omg this web app so impressive”, never, ever, never, ever.
Many blog post submissions here are someone diving into something they like, hardware, software, tool etc. and it’s just because people like to share.