Good post hansm, I agree with everything you said. Content sites is what really makes internet valuable. However we still see tons of spam everywhere. Why is that? Sad truth is: spam also works. While content sites make benefit for both parties: webmaster and visitors, spam is good only for one side: spam maker, of course, noone else benefit of it. We can rid of spam only when it stop be profitable activity. Until then we'll just have to take it as it is...
If I had 120,000 daily visitors from google I wouldn't be spending my time on forums trying to give advice.