I think it's safe to ignore Core / Knots drama and treat jpeg spam utxo bloat as a forcing function for eventual universal adoption of utreexo, including filtering nodes like knots that hate it but oh well too bad for them.

Given the economic incentives long term, I see no other way.

Spam is a sideshow indeed "like arguing about the Polkas" in good morning Vietnam is a good way to put it. @028559d218 is right.