Spamhaus, which (as far as I can tell) is seen as the "most legitimate" blacklist is just as bad, if not worse. UCEPROTECT might be extorting you, but at least you know the name of the game. With Spamhaus, any email sender can get blacklisted for whatever nonsense rules Spamhaus comes up with – many times a set of entrapments they themselves have devised – and they have zero urgency or clarity around resolving it. "Fix the problem" they say. Okay, what's the problem? "Be a better sender." Okay, how? It's like a conversation with Yoda.

To be clear: I DON'T think blacklists are the problem. I think the problem is that a half-dozen major blacklists are controlled by unaccountable organizations who make up rules willy nilly, and privilege major email senders while punishing smaller senders / home hobbyists.