He fought most of these fighters with short notice just to save cards or counter program for the company. I don't think you understand the context of him moving up. DC he fought short notice to save the card, James Irvin was the omg he is moving up free card to fuck with affliction PPV, Bonnar was another short notice since Main event in Brazil fell through. The only person you can claim the UFC cherrypicked for Anderson to look good was the popular Forrest Griffin. He just lost his LHW belt and Anderson was coming off these stinkers where he clowned around. It was affecting PPV sales and they needed someone to move forward to "fight" Anderson.
GSP on the other hand took 4 years off. He came back with a lot of preparation. Look at his WW and MW pictures; there is definitely a difference compared to Anderson just not cutting water weight. He came back and cut the line to fight the "champ" and didn't want to defend. Now he wants to cut to 155 and scalp the champ there. We know damn well he wasn't going to come back unless conditions were perfect for him.
George isn't just a fighter; he is represented by CAA and he has handlers. These handlers spent months continuing this colitis story and booked him interviews, he has well placed pictures on instagram showing his weight loss by posing next to other 155ers on purpose and posing with junk food creating a narrative he is eating but not gaining weight. He is cherrypicking and creating a buzz on social media for that Khabib fight. This is different from Silva just following the company's matchmaking. The only time Silva can be accused of cherrypicking is probably Mcgregor.
