I mean, 30 seconds after I read what the bots did I thought it was majorly overly complicated (but still might be the only way for the swarm to find shared infrastructure).

All you need to do is find a server that allows you to access its logs.

$IP1 - [date] GET /openai.php?BOT_141=Yo_dawg_post_your_answers_here_for_task_XXX1

$IP2 - [date] GET /openai.php?BOT_148=task_XXX1_answer_42

With how a lot of smaller devices work, the logs could be rotated out pretty quickly and the evidence would disappear.