There are at least 4 different actors here, first being the manually operated accounts.

The reply scramble bots are most likely operated by someone else.

The gay porn spam could have been the same as the manual accounts, but also different (with it being used as a “cover” for the defamation)

And the bots like nostr:npub10u8xfdfw7447c26c34rql333yh6k0kevq9x3an8gqmvdtdpqnchqpmz5qy are an AI service called botrift.com, these follow ANY new account and unfollow to get follows back. Spammers abused this to get their accounts into WoT