I pretty much have a similar view to yours @whatsup and have done from when I first joined about a year ago.
I heard about these bots and I wanted to know more. In one way they are convenient in that you can vote for those you wish to support without having to find their content. But saying that you might upvote on a post that, if you have seen, you might have decided against. It is also a way of earning easy money, as you say. But of course modern times is all about making easy money. The banksters and the stock-market fraudsters we can thank for that.
I dont use a bot myself and never have. I prefer to actually read content and decide from that.
Perhaps when Steemit reaches a million "actual" users then they will do away with bots?
When I discovered Steemit it was a refreshing change for me. A place where I could find good honest content and also upload content I wanted to share.

Im not the best at interaction but if something gets my attention, like this post for example, then I always write my thoughts.
I have not thought about the flagging and have never once used it. The danger is it can create a flagging war of which I have seen. Its a tricky one.

With regards to "shaping" Steemit, this is a major point you bring up.
What exactly do we want Steemit to be?
I guess market forces will have some say in this.
From the beginning I have made a point of welcoming newbies in the inroduceyourself tag. And from this I have noticed a distinct increase in the motivation to make money. The other day o went into steemit chat and within 5 seconds someone asked me: "shall we swap upvotes". Forget the content, just give me your upvote. I see this more and more.
I understand this and it is a free system but it does rather defeat the point IMO- Why not create a blockchain platform where people can just upvote each other for the sake of making money. Who needs content.

I have noticed this change even in my short time on here and it definitely has something to do with money.
When I started the value of steem was so low it took many many many votes to make any actual cash. I was checking this out the other day. On one of my first posts there had almost 200 upvotes and I made just over $2 lol. All who started (after offering value price fell I mean) we posted inspite of this low value. No one can accuse s of being in it for the money at that time. Yeah we all hope it would rise but it was an act of faith for all of us. And because of this there was a genuine sense of "we are all in this together". At least that is how I felt.
Newbies ask me a lot of questions on how they can make money on steemit. As aI say this is understandable in one way and I totally agree we should be rewarded for good content. I suppose I hope Steemit would transcend this impulse but of course Steemit itself is promoted as a place where you get paid for content. I dont know where it is all going but life has a way of being driven by wave of public wants and wishes whether we like it or not.
I can not control steemit, no one can, butI can control myself, and as such I will continue to look for and upvote good content.