yep, absolutely. this reeks of desperation and an overly-rushed attempt at ratfucking Kat.
this only made the news because one person (Amanda Informed) got sent the offer, and decided to tell a journalist about it rather than simply accept or decline it.
the lesson that they're going to take from this is not "don't use influencers to ratfuck candidates" it's "be more cautious about which influencers you try to recruit"