I think there is a disconnect in the scale at which you are both commenting:

Comment #1:

  > I've been tracking how often this happens over the last month.
  > <snip>
  > it definitely happens less often compared to a several weeks
  > ago.

Comment #2:

  > I am seeing many, many more clone sites in my search
  > results in the last few months

You can't argue against "things have gotten better in the last week" with "things have been getting worse for the last 6 months."