Spike has been tracking down info, we're not told how or from whom.

A lot of your other reaction I understand, but don't quite agree with. This issue has Buffy explicitly saying that Spike saved the world in Chosen (not some clean up thing or whatever). We've got Buffy pledging her heart to the guy she just destroyed the world with. That they are not sufficiently impressed with Spike's soul is not exactly a textual endorsement of his actual unimportance.

What got crushed here was any picture of the tender Buffy the more Buffy-centric Spuffies see.