I think it has to be a healthy mix. Right now you can handle anything manually. And yes I also read EVERY article I vote for, and I comment a lot of them, too. I just think it´s a form of respect paid back to the author.
But if steemit grew it could get quite complicated to not rely on some 'safe rewards' earned by bots or trails. I am not anti-automation, but love the idea of a 'bonus system' for hard-working users :)