It's no surprise that this happened. Every good thing that comes along is laid to waste by spammers and it ruins it for everyone.
As for the human review, I believe the lense only receives a human review if one of the computer algos gets tripped so it shouldn't take long to create a lense (as long as you don't set off any alarms).
Just checked my lenses and they're just fine. Of course, my lenses do contain helpful information and aren't spammy in the least. LOL Basically, you can still use Squidoo to market your website or blog, you just need to be smart about it.
~ Teli