Although gauge invariance is a postulate in fundamental theories of nature such as quantum electrodynamics, in quantum-simulation implementations of gauge theories it is compromised by experimental imperfections. In a recent work [Halimeh and Hauke, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 030503 (2020)], it has been shown in finite-size spin-1/2 quantum link lattice gauge theories that upon introducing an energy-penalty term of sufficiently large strength V , unitary gauge-breaking errors at strength λ are suppressed ∝ λ 2 /V 2 up to all accessible evolution times. Here, we show numerically that this result extends to quantum link models in the thermodynamic limit and with larger spin-S. As we show analytically, the dynamics at short times is described by an adjusted gauge theory up to a timescale that is at earliest τ adj ∝ V /V 3 0 , with V0 an energy factor. Moreover, our analytics predicts that a renormalized gauge theory dominates at intermediate times up to a timescale τren ∝ exp(V /V0)/V0. In both emergent gauge theories, V is volume-independent and scales at worst ∼ S 2 . Furthermore, we numerically demonstrate that robust gauge invariance is also retained through a single-body gauge-protection term, which is experimentally straightforward to implement in ultracold-atom setups and NISQ devices.