I look at Steemit like a game. It basically calls it that in the white paper. So to me bots are like cheat codes. Depending on how you look at it that can make the game more fun. The point you are making about people passing over good content because it has low vote amounts is true. It is tough when you put a lot of work into a post only to have it disappear into obscurity. Using Bots is also like paying for advertisement.

It is cool you made this post. I just used my first service. It was https://steemit.com/@boomerang
I sent 4 SBD and received and upvote of 8 SBD. So I feel like that was an amazing ROI. I don't know if the results are always that great but it was pretty damn good to me. I used it for this post here
https://steemit.com/music/@rumble/spotify-ipo-valued-at-usd20-billion-plus-what-this-means-for-blockchain-music-dapps-like-peertracks-find-your-creative-freedom

I put a lot of hard work and time into that post and it would be a shame to me to see it go unnoticed.