Good article, and good to highlight that the vote buying/selling is also mathematically similar to bidbots. Indeed, both are just the consequences of the economic code of the Steem blockchain.

We have headed into an attractor that will be difficult to pull away from without some changes to the underlying economy. However, we must think carefully about how to do this - so as not to make it worse - and to distinguish between coin creation and distribution.

If anybody wishes to discuss this in depth then feel free to DM on Discord or join the steem-economy chatroom on SOS Discord server - or in comments here, of course :-)