Yeah but to be fair he did ask for alternatives in case you are targeted. It happened at work here too, someone with a grudge and a botnet waged a multi-month targeted campaign, and reCAPTCHA was the only thing that helped.
Are there alternatives in situations like this?
You can use common knowledge or simple ambiguity of language. You can use simple math arithmetic, written in properly obfuscated html. and randomly generated on each page load. You can use custom question about the content of the article (helps with informed answers).
On a small blog of mine just one question with one answer on the contact form prevented all spam for over 5 years already although it would be trivial to exploit in a targeted attack.
Targeted attacks are rare unless your captcha protects a juicy target that is worth a targeted attack at some point.