Sure, shady companies exist. And you shouldn’t trust shady companies to self report. But… you already know that, it’s in the name! “Shady”. So I think the idea that you should never trust self reporting is indeed an over reaction.

However, having been at (what I deemed) non-shady companies, there’s still the very human desire to downplay as much as is reasonable. Shady companies overstep reasonability on purpose.