I'd draw the line in a slightly different place: between not publishing a bad meal and being paid not to.

I only write about places I'd recommend, which by your description puts me somewhere near the smiling crowd. The part I care about is that nothing gets arranged in advance. No comp, no brief, no tag required. I'm not a critic and don't pretend to be, but I think advertising begins where the free meal does, wherever the verdict lands.

No argument on the disappearance though. Somebody has to be able to say a thing is bad, and fewer and fewer people are paid to.