They're called MFAs (Made For AdSense), nothing changed since the early AdSense days. It's unlikely that Google is knowingly boosting them, it's just that search engines have always been easy to game with artificial link building and keyword density maximization, MFA owners happen to be among the people most likely to invest a lot in cheating their way to the top of search engine rankings. AI only made creating MFAs easier.
The proverbial cat of SEO has long gotten out of the bag. Google isn't actively choosing one site over another so much as being "victims" of their own derived search engine heuristics.
I very much think a lot of work needs to be put in to resolve this. But I don't really think having one of the biggest companies on the planet be the gate keeper of what news you do and don't get to see would.
Periodic reminder to please directly subscribe to quality news sources to help fund good journalism. Especially local newspapers which have been really struggling. They are often the only ones holding your local elected officials accountable or reporting on them to any degree.
Oh god, of course they are. Haven't checked on Microsoft News in a while, but the last time I did, they were promoting tons upon tons of transphobic propaganda.