The 1MM tips are most likely real. It's PlanetJeff, the dude with the dead wife and his daily stipend to Phil. He used to be active in chat but isn't any more, because he got doxxed and detractors called his workplace and such. However, Phil does use them to salt the jar and see if the minor whalechairs will at least spring for the Dentspecs. That's really it.
I mean, if he wanted to, he could just not ever mention them and we wouldn't know. He could beg like he had 0$ in tips. But he chooses to put up the 25$ daily. He has shown to give precisely 0 fucks about transparency before, even encouraging supposedly massive whales to send him huge donations through Western Union, so if he's doing this, he has to think it's somehow beneficial. At the very least, it's an ego shield. No more single digit tip streams, ever.