It is true that they are responsible for a lot of transactions on hive. But do those really benefit the whole ecosystem? They use 2nd layer tokens issues by themselves, fees go to hive engine. They're basically using the hive blockchain as a database, without utilizing the native tokens at all.
I could send a bunch of custom_json transactions every day, but how would that benefit hive?
That was just a point about transactions and sending custom_json. But we should agree that a good part of the movement in the HIVE community, from posts, comments and curation, is due to Splinterlands. Even if some of them are a big vote-getting farm.
I have many friends who, like me, are Brazilians who got to know the HIVE ecosystem through Splinterlands.