They would earn the affiliate money if they sent me directly to Amazon, that isn’t blocked by privacy dns. But they don’t send me to Amazon directly as many other affiliate sites do, they bounce me through some 3rd party affiliate wrappers before ultimately landing me on Amazon.

it seems the objection is to unearned affiliate revenue (for any purchases at amazon for some period just for visiting wirecutter), not earned affiliate revenue (by clicking on a product you intend to buy), which is consistent and fair.

What you described sounds like cookie stuffing and is almost certainly prohibited by Amazon and any competently run affiliate network/program.

yup, that's it. i couldn't recall the name for the practice, so thanks for that!

From what the OP said I don't think that's the case. They're specifically talking about clicking on links not working.

i read it as links between pages on wirecutter, not out (i haven't tested if theres actually an interstitial affiliate marker page though).