I will share my experience here,because spammy backlinks can actually work in some cases.
Key Point : Google does not necessarily count every bad backlink. A lot of low quality links simply get ignored,which is also why "negative SEO" is not as straight forward as it used to be.
That being said, I would not recommend blasting 1,000 spammy links directly to a new website.Extreme spam can still cause problems.
I have seen people using tools like RankerX to build large numbers of links,and it can work in certain niches.
How to do then : If I were doing it, I would keep Tier 1 relatively controlled and use the heavier spam on Tier 2 instead. For example, build hundred links in Tier 1 and then use thousands of lower quality links to support those Tier 1 links.
So, in my experience, it is not simply “zero backlinks is always better.” It depends on the niche, the strategy, and how the links are structured.
Hope this helps answer the question.