I have noticed the moderators seem to be a bit firmer lately. Merit has made it really difficult for new spammers and account farmers so maybe banning the spammers that are already here is the way forward.
Ive noticed the new meta is to just make a comment of some randomness but on topic; like "I would like to buy a batch and sell these, but where would the market for sales be?" or "I wonder if anyone has given thought to applying [this topic] to [that topic]?" where the [topics] seem pretty unrelated from each other.
People get creative to achieve their goal... But granted; I have yet to give merit to anyone posting like that; I have been giving it out to people who are truly conversing or helping the subject move along.