I don't see the problem to be honest.
Members whine about the state of the forums, then do something about it and practice what you preach. If there's a lot of spam, I see two options:
1) most members WANT the spam and the forum is merely accomodating
2) Get better staff
And no, that second one is not an attack on the mods and admin, but well, a forum has those mods and admin to keep the place in check. If there's twenty repeat threads in a forum RAM THAT REPORT BUTTON. Stop whinig and do something about it?