They gave them 24 hours until the embargo was lifted. I'm not sure why some blogs are upset about it though, because they could have waited however long they wanted before they published something. They clearly wanted in on the initial review traffic.
That is the whole point. Most of these review sites are trying to run a business, so they need traffic. Launch day reviews are a huge source of traffic, so they need to 1) post as soon as the embargo is lifted, and 2) stay on apples good side so that they get early review units.
The effect is that we aren't getting entirely honest reviews of apple products on launch day, and we probably aren't getting honest reviews afterwards from any site that depends on the traffic from early review units.
Launch day is Friday. Most outlets will have had the phone for the whole week by then.
I really don’t see how this results is consumers having less information. There is a 5-6 wait on any new iPhone X’s. If any issues arise, consumers will be able to cancel their orders free of charge.