While I totally agree with the broader points you are making here, I was going to point out that the "Trending" posts algorithm could (and should) easily be changed by steemit.com, and of course any other front end can employ whatever "trending" algorithm they want. Then I realized that @guiltyparties already said this. It is actually kind of mind blowing that Steemit, Inc still allows the steemit.com trending page to display bid-bot promoted posts without at least marking them as such (promotion), if not give users the ability to hide them (or hide them by default).