[xyzzy]

Yes. They re-enabled it for me. I already had a closed ticket from last year when this problem first appeared so I reopened that ticket to report it. It was fixed pretty quickly.

I don't think it's automated. In the spam folder they also show the badge with the spam score too. I assume the use of the Spam Protection setting is still in place even if the option disappears to set it. I don't know why that Spam Protection option appears to be so "volatile".