[markx2]

Akismet makes money for Automattic / Matt.

Comment spam is terrible and will continue to get worse.

Decent alternatives exist.

Increasing the visibility of Akismet should help increase revenue.

This is 100% a financial move.

[stevoski]

What are those decent alternatives to Akismet?

I went looking earlier this year and found nothing even close to Akismet on a price-to-effectiveness basis.

[markx2]

Look at WP Armour – Honeypot Anti Spam.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/honeypot/

/r/wordpress will probably have others.

[altairprime]

Requiring moderation of all comments remains effective.

[onara]

Oopspam