I think the vote selling/buying bots are here to say forever, barring a change in the code to make it less favorable or outright stop it. The majority is on a bandwagon effect, and will still flock to those who are on the trending page (unless that mechanic changes). People don't even need to reply to their comments to keep getting rewarded, attention and to get more upvotes because they are a higher payout post.

Some ppl will eventually learn that there is a better way to do things and stop supporting those people, but there are still those who buy votes and do interact, and many won't care that they buy votes. So many popular people who were such before bidbots buy votes, they don't care it seems. And neither does 90% of the Steem city :/

I hope the "higher quality products" become more organically rewarded, but that's just a hope and dream given that vote selling is here to stay barring any change I don't see ever happening.