I imagine Apple's lawyers can shred that ruse. As an expert site, they knew exactly how likely it was that this was lost (near zero), and they knew they could profit from its clandestine possession. Whether they give it back afterward is immaterial to Gizmodo's profits and to the secrecy Apple wanted to protect.

I think paying the money is the trigger point for some problems.

Exchanging money doesn't mean exchanging ownership. If you pay an agency $10,000 to photograph a model, you don't own that model. Why would a telephone be any different?

Per Gizmodo themselves, they got the phone and held onto it until contacted by Apple's Bruce Sewell who requested its return. Nick Denton has been quoted in several other news stories as saying he paid $5000 for it.

Because It doesn't sound like they paid for the photographs, it sounds like they paid for iphone