Is that correct ? (especially the latter last part of my statement (*))
I cannot give you a definitive answer but, I can state a fact that does make a difference.
The "current fix" actually changes the link text itself in the post. IOW, the post has _changed_.
if you try to change "**s:" back to ht tp etc, it doesn't work, the "current fix" sets it back to "**s:". After the "current fix" is disabled then hopefully setting it back (to ht tp etc) will work.
Based on what @marcov posted above, I am under the impression that the links will not be restored to what they were after the "current fix" is no longer needed.
On a separate note, I did a search for posts that contain "forum.lazarus.freepascal.org" to get an idea of how many links were affected. Since the search returns a limited number of hits (apparently max 500), this turned out to fall short of producing a usable estimate.
However, for the database administrator, it would seem possible to restore the links to what they where before the "current fix" by updating '**s:forum.lazarus.freepascal.org' to be prefixed with the proper ht tpetc.
IOW, it seems the change can be undone after the current spam problem is appropriately dealt with.