Hold up. They preferred the ergonomics of a Sony over those of a Canon? I...can't fathom that to be true.
If you count the silent shutter as part of the ergos, then it makes perfect sense. I still haven't gotten rid of my A9II, and right now it's the best PJ camera I have. I'm hoping the coming R5 bests it, but as it is now, that silence is critical in some journalistic situations.
The "feel" of the new Sony cameras is much better with their ergonomic improvements. Not quite Canon, but if the Canon is a 1DXIII and sounds like a jet engine, then well, yeah. The cameras mentioned in the article were all ergo updated ones. This doesn't, of course, fix the intolerable menus. It is true that PJs are apt to keep to some specific sets of settings, without needing to do those 10-minute treasure hunts into the menus for the obscure feature now and again that the amateurs do.
It's not unthinkable that for their use they liked Sony better as of July 23, 2020. If the R5 is as good as I hope, there may be some forehead slapping, though, come July 30.