I am still in contact with some of the folks I used to moderate with there, and nothing has changed in that regard. Search engine ranking is what drives traffic there, and search engine ranking is still blind to too many aspects of a site.
It's kind of funny...two of the most active math help sites I know of are the worst in terms of spam and admin neglect. They just happen to have been around longer than most, and so their search engine ranking is higher than most, and when someone gets online and looks for a math help site, those two sites sit at or near the top of the results list. So, they get more new traffic as a result, and this then drives their ranking up even further...it's a feedback loop. Newer sites in a fairly saturated niche are at a distinct disadvantage under the current search engine ranking regime.
By and large though, it seems most students seeking math help don't care about site features or lack of spam...they care about finding a site where they can dump their homework, go goof off on facebook, and come back later to pick up their assigned work, all worked out and ready for them to copy/past/turn in. Most times when we ask a new user to show their work so we can actually help them, not do their work for them, that's last we hear from them. But, at MHB we're not in it primarily to have a huge site, we are in it to help people, and you aren't truly helping anyone by doing their work for them (if anything, you are hurting them). If we eventually wind up a huge active site, that would be nice, but we're not going to compromise our principles to get there. 
