Trending posts using bid bots is just a result...one of many negative effects of misaligned incentives. The problem is that stakeholders understand that there’s better profitability with less time/effort by delegating to these bid bots.

What makes you believe that more buyers of STEEM will result in more downvoting as opposed to more delegating to bots that offer passive returns? And how could the very few people who are left and who care actually combat several millions of SP into those bots - at their current sizes?

Also - would it not be easier and more practical/beneficial to simply adjust the incentives? To implement these incentives at the protocol level so that everyone is on the same playing field and so that we have a functioning ecosystem and “economy?”

We pretty much all see and acknowledge that “something is broken.” Why do we keep plodding along in a “broken” system instead of trying to repair it...or worse - doubling down on the same ideas from the same people who caused the break?