The industry in general is so secretive with ridiculous rules so it’s not a Sony issue only. If they want “fair access” as you say then it is not fair that some outlets can show the box and others can’t because they didn’t receive it yet going by your logic. Put an NDA over the whole thing until everyone receive theirs and they can show more than the damn box.
Embargos aren't only for games. They are in every market, and exist for a simple reason: the company gives them content for free to create their own content (reviews, news, videos, articles, etc) but ask them to don't publish them before certain a day and hour.
And this is to make sure they have enough time to check out that product properly and have enough time to make these videos/reviews/etc with enough time, knowing everyone will publish it at the same time, so they don't have to rush to make a bad quality video/review/etc quickly to be the first and try to get extra clicks. So the journalists/influencers get benefited from it (plus they got the console/game/etc for free), plus the customers get a better quality content, and the company also gets benefited because they can schedule and track better their marketing & PR campaigns.