Maybe a better way to say it is this....

The swamp is the system that creates issues out of clear innuendo and obfuscates issues of clear corruption by insiders.

Clarence Thomas seems to be playing the game exactly as the rules are clearly written.... but he didn't write them. If you don't want him playing the games this way that's fine. Change the rules.

But the exception for the hospitality of a friend, REGARDLESS of the way someone might try and 'value' that hospitality is CLEARLY exempt from reporting.

The SCOTUS doesn't make those rules. Congress does. And if such a case comes before the SCOTUS and Thomas wants to try and argue that it is an unconstitutional law, a reasonable argument can be made that he is not unbiased in that and should recuse himself.