That's a nice "explain to me like I'm 5" summary, but sorry nostr:nprofile1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq37amnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3dwfjkccte9ejx2un9ddex7umn9ekk2tcqyqlhwrt96wnkf2w9edgr4cfruchvwkv26q6asdhz4qg08pm6w3djg3c8m4j , it misses an important point: if the OpReturn way is made difficult, spammers will use other, more convoluted, overall much worse schemes. Like using dummy output addresses to embed data. And that's bad because it results in non-prunable UTXO. Those will pollute the UTXO set forever, creating a burden for all nodes, including yours. There is no way to filter data stored in an output address.

Stopping some part of unwanted spam is better than stopping none. but forcing some spam into a more toxic variety is much worse.

Please don't jump to unbased oversimplifications.