Akid48: an indication of their status is the plea for money in the Jan 2018 WT (study edition).
Hitherto, these articles were read only and printed in the WT once per year. Now they are study articles (question and answer) so a whole hour devoted to them at meetings.The last such article was several months ago with a graphic of a hand hovering above a donation box with banknote to the fore.
So the WTBTS is getting 2018 off to a good start with their unwritten but demonstrative philosophy of TAKE! TAKE! TAKE!