The Verge was given a unit to review therefore they would be under obligation of a NDA. They would not have been ab le to tell viewers they were under restrictions of a NDA because the NDA would have prevented them from doing so. Many times the Verge has purchased a product themselves because they do not want to be under the restriction of a NDA. The fact they reviewed a unit means Apple would have had to given them one to review which means they would have been under Apple instructions as to what they can and cannot say.If that were really the case, an outlet like the Verge would report on it and it would be a big scandal and Apple would be made fun of for that in perpetuity. It would leak out.
I have no doubt you are wrong.
Edit: that's not to say there are zero restrictions. I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to do a drop test with loaner hardware. Also, they had to keep their usage of the hardware discreet, so they may not have been able to test some real world use cases, like using it on an airplane.