Hey @flauwy,
I think the voting bots are still useful at low levels to help avoid posts getting lost among all the spam (of which there is a growing amount).
But I also think that utopian-io has given lots of people a chance to get some visibility which brings less need to promote their other posts. The busy.org upvote is another example. It shows what can be done with a little thought around the reward system. Welcome changes!
True, there are great alternatives now to upvote bots. :)