I think both are now in play.
The people who still use a 3PP to bot and then just monitor it (like in RO days, I’ve seen it rampant). My 2nd link is a recent example (just a few days ago).
Then we have the next level people using a 3PP to just f*ck you up directly. My 3rd link is a recent example of attack speed hackers (not really channel crashing but still hacking).