The era of "The Net" as a magical place away from the world and its troubles is well and truly gone. I think that's what oldsters like us mourn the most - the world has invaded full force and brought its troubles with it. It's just that now we're starting to notice, as those easy-peasy centralized platforms inevitably turn the screws even as the spammers vandalize anything that's open.

When the internet was young the predators were small, but now that it's grown the predators are nation state sized. You can be DDOSed off forever if some monied actor chooses that for you. And that is tiny, as you say, to the raw torrent of spam looking to infected your site with their message. It's enough to kill any host.