it's not a matter of gaming the system. You have to have a bank account to get a visa. You can't get a bank account. You have to transfer money from overseas but most of the banks can't accept the transfer anymore. Endless games.
try to keep up. They want you to get long term visas like retirement or education instead of letting you come repeatedly as a tourist then make it impossible to get the long term visa
I only wish we had gone before they got rid of the elephants. Yes they have big malls in Bangkok but we can still eat pizza and ice cream. They even have Carl's Jr in Cambodia. It's gone from Thailand