only allowing posts from non-crypto related sites to stop all the advertising spam
This would be my preferred solution (at least as a trial in the first instance), although I can also see the argument for just locking it completely. It served a purpose when bitcoin was this niche and relatively unknown development, and any mention of it in the media was a big deal. Now that bitcoin is regularly written about on most major news sites, regularly discussed on TV by most major news networks, even tweeted about by the president; "notable" press hits isn't really a meaningful concept in this context.This "legalized plagiarism" as you put it is the lowest of the low - the absolute minimum amount of work needed to make a post which will be paid by a bounty and won't be deleted. My concern would be that if the Press board is more strictly moderated or locked, then these spammers would simply move to another board.
) and I found it was a common practice a very long time ago.