No, not misleading, you've said what you've seen.
I haven't looked at the promotion page recently.
To be honest, I don't think some of the people are using the promotion feature to recoup their investment. I think they are using it to get their blog post at the top of the page so everyone can see it.
Just because someone pays a fortune to promote their blog post doesn't mean it will necessarily make 'mega-bucks' although it has happened before now.