Although you and allot of the commenters make valid sentiments about the integrity of the platform being violated, I have no problem with automated vote buying services like @randowhale . Currently, it seems like the trending and hot content is solely due to whales and whale votes. The only way to compete with that is to promote your post in various ways. I see users using vote buying the most when they put a great deal of time an effort into something and what it to have a chance at getting some momentum. I myself have written detailed articles that I worked on for days, had I not got it to the hot page with voting bots, it would have got far less exposure, likes, comments, and dialogue. Heres the article https://steemit.com/technology/@quattrophoto/the-orewellian-experience-of-working-at-an-amazon-warehouse
And I still didn't even “profit” off this article, I lost money like most people do who buy votes, which is fine i gained followers and the satisfaction of having a valuable conversation with real people
If im right about randowhale, its more of a gamble since the returns might be less than the input since the upvote strength is well, randomised
I dont think ive ever not gained steem using rando its payout is always higher than the payment by design