I occasionally visited the forum during 2014 as a guest and I was not interested in anything except to learn more about Bitcoin, although I must admit that I was also interested in some altcoins and of course then very popular faucets. I registered in 2015, and at least as far as I remember, there was a very relaxed mood then, because Bitcoin was cheap (between $200 - $250), and some signature campaigns were literally run by bots - there was so much spam that it was immeasurable in comparison from today.
I registered on the forum in summer 2017 although I discovered it months before. I remember there was a serious problem with spam, as you mentioned, which ended up leading to the merit system. I suppose it's not perfect, like any other solution they might have wanted to put in place, but it alleviated a lot of the problem.
However, none of that is a reason that the OP or anyone else can't progress on the forum - time is of course still a key factor, but with merits we got another challenge that the members have to overcome, which is not easy, but far from an impossible mission, which many have already proven.
I agree. With a little effort, everyone can make progress on the forum.