I can agree with most of what you said text. Just seems like no matter what you do to combat spam, it's a no win situation. I believe after an update is made, some anti-spam plugins are installed, as well as having a bigger staff team, we'll be okay.
It will give us moderators some actual work! LOL! As for the "trying to understand the spammers", we've been discussing and viewing things and trying to figure out the best ways to combat them.