Newslink posts were created and promoted by whales on steemit as a way to bring people to the platform. They were introduced nearly 3 years ago and not long after came the TIL post promotion. People wanted steemit to be more like reddit and I agree with that. I continue posting those to this day. I only post newslinks for what I read and enjoy. All posts follow the laid out guidelines for newslink posts. I enjoy sharing what I am interested in and hope others enjoy it too. I've been thanked several times for introducing people to some of those articles.

Oh and what you are calling spam was welcomed when that steem power it generated was used to support steemcleaners by flagging the real scammers and spammers on steem.