To be fair, the era of precise spelling is relatively recent. It wasn't that long ago that spelling was basically the phoenetic Wild West

This is a pathetic take. Dictionaries aren't rules, they're guides on how words are used. If a word is commonly used one way, then the dictionary needs to reflect that.

And no, affect and effect will not be changed in the dictionary. People were using literally as an intensifier, which is why it got its new definition. Using effect instead of affect is just wrong, not semantic drift.