I don't want to let them off lightly for their journalistic quality – lots of their fans genuinely believe they know their shit and they don't live up to that – but the fact they sold that prototype is more shocking to me.

Even if they'd get a million bucks for it and donated twice as much to charity, that is just not a thing you can do.

1. It's not their property. Why are they auctioning that to begin with?
2. When auctioning, you need to tell people what they're buying. Surely, at that point, you'd realize it's a prototype.
3. That's just a massive violation of journalistic integrity. That prototype may have cost £XXXX to produce, but if it falls into the hands of a competitor, the financial damage is significantly higher. Why would any hardware manufacturer send LTT exclusive hardware previews after this?