I was testing out the spirits with a friend, turns out Anet messed up the spirits.
The passive boons aren't measured from the spirits (as of posting) they originate from your character and have a 600 range from you
From my experience of this stuff... we properly be back to normal by the end of this week or next week.
Its a major bug that's affecting a lot of people. Normally this kind of stuff is treated as very urgent.
I know people are disgruntled but there isn't a lot we can do. To get something consistent at the very least.
They have been letting us know that they are trying to fix it.
They are doing their best to identify the issue and make sure bugs like this dont appear in the patch (no use half doing a patch)
All we can do is be patient.