I would say that the current stance is something close to a last resort before paid signatures are outright banned completely, it something close to that.
That would be unfortunate. For me and I would assume a lot of users it is a good means of having a steady income.
A revision of signature and restrictions might achieve the same. When the forum changed to activity and limited signature there was a reduction in spam before workarounds were discovered. Another downsizing like that should work.