[luckylion]

> That's probably a key issue here though. Providing an API potentially makes it easier for spammers to identify ways to boost their content in a well automated manner.

How so? Unless you give reasoning for the scores, or provide live updates etc, just putting an API on search wouldn't change much - you can APIfy search now, there are multiple services offering it as a service. Granted, at some point it's getting expensive, but for SEO research, you're probably not running a million queries.