Please. Captcha by default. Email domain filters. Auto-block federation from servers that don't respect. By default. Urgent.
And yes, to refute some comments, this publication is being upvoted by bots. A single computer was needed, not "thousands of dollars" spent.
heavily reliant on the mods
As any solution to this sort of problem should be, IMO.
If the mods suck, then go make another community. If enough of the mods are good, they can be a huge part of the solution. I'm envisioning this:
Transparency keeps the mods honest, or at least allows users in the community to name and shame bad mods.
Some automated tools to help mods out are always welcome.