Man i should get you to talk to my spam with that magic +5 robot charisma.

Unfortunately, it still won’t prevent my number from being spammed. There is no human to talk to. Any indication you are alive is a confirmation your phone number is worth calling. The only thing you can do to convince them is not answer or somehow communicate a likely disconnection from a human.

So have you tried the approach I am advocating for a meaningful amount of time, say a week or two, or are you just sure that it won't work and thus avoid it because you are worried that you will do things like confirm you are worth calling?

Honestly I haven’t collected enough sample attempts to be sure. However, not answering unknown phone numbers seems to have worked very well.