Who's bashing him? A few YouTube keyboard warriors who are probably among the very same people that are fawning over those Sammy and Alite videos.
The podcast game is a legitimate hustle that's capable of generating a lot of money these days and the Mob has always had legitimate hustles. I doubt he's going to spill the beans about the life in his videos. Only time can tell how it'll work out; maybe it won't work out at all or maybe it'll end up being a really smart move. Who knows at this point.
Most of those wiseguys we see around on the web with their podcasts are only out because they ratted to get out. That's not the case with Joey Merlino as far as anyone can tell. And if this legitimate business venture turns out to be a successful one...good for him.