major tech companies are pretty good about giving reviewer samples to anyone with a large enough audience
That isn’t true, for example LTT doesn’t get seeded Apple products anymore because of what they have said about Apple. NVidia has also been caught revoking early access to products to some outlets because they were unhappy about reporting as well.
PTC doesn’t care about being a counterbalance to fusion360 or they would have a less restrictive free version. They only care about making money from subscriptions from corporate customers. They amen way more money from Creo and Windchill than they do with Onshape.