Are you sure? PH's official line has always been "share with people you know but no bots/asking for upvotes/manipulation" or something akin to that. It's still in their community guidelines, albeit with language that gives them a bit of wiggle room.
I think the problem is that they don't seem to have a good enforcement mechanism, and so for what must've been years I haven't really seen staff proactively go after those who do game the system. The only times when I've seen action taken is when the community comes out and basically calls out a product/maker. Most people don't care enough to do that kind of stuff, I'd imagine. I've done it a few times (either outright illegal stuff like peddling American legal services from overseas without qualifications, or obviously scam crypto projects) but these should have been obvious. The staff is also unresponsive on email, although better on the forums.
I'm not sure how recent those articles were added, but at least as of a year ago when I tried to post something on ProductHunt, part of the post creation flow (which is quite intricate and a story for another day) explicitly encouraged you to post on social media and "share" with friends.
Almost every PH post these days has a little back and forth comment thread between the maker and the people who they've clearly asked to upvote and/or comment.
https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/2690626-how-do-i-sh...
https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/484935-can-i-ask-my...
I think the problem is that they don't seem to have a good enforcement mechanism, and so for what must've been years I haven't really seen staff proactively go after those who do game the system. The only times when I've seen action taken is when the community comes out and basically calls out a product/maker. Most people don't care enough to do that kind of stuff, I'd imagine. I've done it a few times (either outright illegal stuff like peddling American legal services from overseas without qualifications, or obviously scam crypto projects) but these should have been obvious. The staff is also unresponsive on email, although better on the forums.