My half-brother worked for TRW Space Technologies in the years prior to and after the moon landings. I actually visited him in his lab in El Segundo, California one time when they were testing the gold drop down curtains that are visible in the moon landing photos and movies. While much of what he was doing was top-secret, some things were not and the lab I visited was not off-limits to related persons or contractors. They were also testing a lot of switches and rotors and other hardware that had to last through a very rough space flight.
He had all sorts of ovens that they would test various materials in to see what level of heat and cold they could stand and also not tear under any expected stress during the flight. I believe that he also tested the clear face-plates on the helmets they wore and the windows. The windows had to be able to handle certain pressures and decompression and also resist fogging up from both sides.
On the night of the first moon landing my wife, 3 little girls and I went to his home in Torrance, CA to watch the moon landing together. We cheered and cried and cheered and cried during the whole thing. Every so often my brother would jump up and go over to the TV and point out something on the moonlander that he had personally been involved in testing. The gold protective/reflective sheeting was one of those things. He mentioned even before they planted it - that the flag they were planting was also something very special. While he did not personally work on that, he had knowledge of some of the materials used and what the specifications had been.
My brother died 14 years ago, but chatting with my nephew I learned that my brother would often bring that whole event up and want to share stories about his small involvement in that project. He retired from TRW after 25 years working there. He was very Republican politically and was an early fan of Rush Limbaugh, so if there was any chance that he would have been involved in a hoax I'm sure he would have given me some clue. When he was buried in a military cemetery, his family buried his medals from his service during WW2 and also a special commemorative pin that he got from TRW in recognition of his personal contributions to the space program and the moon-lander project.
A hoax? Very, very doubtful. If it was, then the whole moon program was a hoax from the very beginning to the very end. Too many other events have happened since then that built off of the moon-lander program. You'd pretty much have to discount everything including the space station and all the landings on Mars as well.
JV