You are still making the assumption that everyone that uses the site has the ability to shake it off and the intelligence to learn from it. Unfortunately that isn't the case and those people will get sucked in, won't learn from it and it will happen again and again.
And when those threads are repeatedly reported, you can't warn as its 'troll hunting' and you know there are people that will be taken in, its more than a little annoying.
I remember threads where someone made up a baby dying and people were giving them money, the same making up a child with cancer, again that was reported and reported and so many got taken in and were really emotional about it, and it took far too many threads to get deleted.
Yes in an ideal world we would all be smart, not get invested, not give more than we can (whether that be money or time or anything else) but unfortunately not everyone has that ability. And again maybe in an ideal world they would be kept away from these sites for their own safety but why shouldn't they be able to use them to get their own advice and have connections with the world when for some it may be their only connection.
We shouldn't assume that every user has the ability to be fully switched on, unemotionally invested and the ability to be level headed at all times. People get scammed online every day for the very reason that some are more vulnerable than others with these things. When we see that, if we are categorically told we cannot warn others because it is 'troll hunting' and our only way to help protect someone who may be vulnerable, is to report, then yes I do think MN have a responsibility to put the people using the site before some extra clicks and act in a bit more of a timely manner. This one was clearly a bunch of crap a long time before it was removed.
Like I say this time it was only time invested but it can lead to more than time. You also dont ever know how a post will emotionally affect someone else. Just because it didn't affect you, that's not to say it won't to someone else.
I just hate this mentality of oh it didn't bother me, so it shouldn't bother anyone. These threads can and do affect people in different ways and when it's clear they are fake, they should be removed.
I won't keep making the same points but I feel it's a bigger issue and the no troll hunting line is all well and good, as long as these threads are actually moderated. But it seems they aren't while they are generating clicks and personally I think that's wrong.