I think the biggest problem is people that think they will ever be successful on steemit without networking and growing their account. If you don't go out and comment on posts (real authentic comments not spam bullshit) and you don't get involved in any of the things that contests, groups, and communities that go on, then it's going to be a very rough go of it. I agree that they are promotional tools as much as burning SBD to "promoted" a post. I still personally think it's mainly ego stroking self masturbatory behavior to feel validated, but putting crappy posts into trending isn't going to do anyone any favors, so does it really matter? Not in my opinion. Bid bots aren't going away unless the rewards curve changes so I'm just not worrying about it anymore. People that want to use them can use them, people that don't want to use them don't have to, either way no one is guaranteed success and buying time on the trending page makes zero difference in whether or not people want to read what gets put there.
Hey @clayboyn, thanks for dropping by with a very good comment. Steemit has become more a proof of network and socialising than a proof of brain. It has still a minor part for the proof of brain as you need to post good content to be voted by the network, but as you said, involvement makes the difference. Buying into trending gives a user only a small advantage if the post is good, if the post is bad it is even counterintuitive to do it.
I still hope that a flag power pool will be introduced to counter abusive behaviours as for least I tend not to flag bad content but to upvote good one.
I agree, it's really all in where our focus is from my perspective. If we want to focus on the negative aspects of anything, we can find them, same with the positive. I think people get too caught up in their own personal opinions of right and wrong and take things like other people using a bid-bot personally. I used to be more of the opinion that they were an offensive advantage to use against the rest of the reward pool, but I ran my own experiment recently and found them more akin to gambling and promotional costs. No point in fighting a tool that exists, better to focus on proper usage in my opinion.
Wise words. I will use them fron now on as it sums up my toughts