99% of John Gruber posts are glowing reviews of Apple products. His blog is essentially promotional material for Apple. I'm not sure why people post his articles here.
I read one or two critical pieces. Still though he is very kind to them.
Eh, he'd referred to Apple serving a shit sandwich before. So he can be critical.
Gruber is a well known Apple shill.
He's definitely an Apple enthusiast, but he doesn't pull his punches when he thinks Apple has made a misstep. His criticism come from a place of love for Apple: he wants Apple to be great, but that's not quite the same thing as being a paid publicist for Apple. I don't think it's fair to call him a shill.