There are so many redundant posts needlessly repeating the same information and/or posts where the poster hasn't just failed to read the whole thread before posting but has clearly failed to read even the initial post. To be clear, I'm not referring to redundant topics, which bug me far less, because an old topic covered again by a new user still provides an opportunity for fresh insight. I'm more referring to the situation where 30 users all produce similar low-value "answers" in a given topic.
Well, ignoring users is not the correct solution for this. You will have to make good use of:
* ignore boards (some boards bring more spam than information and may not even be interesting for you)
* report post (to get the spam removed) - I'll add here that reporting is not meant to be overly accurate
I'm not sure why there are so many posts like this, but my best guess is that it's users either trying to rank up quickly or trying to fulfill their signature campaign commitments. I've got some empathy for both kinds of user but this type of activity is really lowering the signal to noise ratio and getting in the way of meaningful discussion.
You are pretty much correct imho.
Although I'm very tempted to start, I'm still reluctant to ignore users because it feels "permanent" and I don't want to miss out on their contributions
In most cases you'll lose nothing. I also think that adding complicated rules is not necessary.
You can, for example every Christmas (when we are supposed to be better), clear up completely your ignore list to give everybody a second chance.