The number of accounts/votes doesn't matter at all as far as payouts. It is 100% a matter of SP.
There are bots that do a lot better job at curating actual 'good' posts better than many humans. There also many humans who do a better job than bots.
I think you hit on it earlier, it is not really the bots that are the problem, it is their owners. Whether the bots are there or not, most of the underlying problems are the same.