This is an obvious violation of the guidelines and the quotes in the article sums up the attitude and double standard that exists within the WordPress ecosystem.

I’m sure many (myself included) wouldn’t care if this was the norm and everyone could do it. The fact that Automattic gets special treatment though isn’t fair and doesn’t create an equal playing field for developers to promote their plugins/services.

The intent is obvious here. You can’t accidentally add a sponsored placement in the add plugin screen.