There is always the option to bot your account, if you would rather not play :) That's what I do, as I actually got bored of the game after a while. Plus like you observed, it is kind of a timesuck, and it takes away from the time I can do other things, like write and climb mountains.
Meh, I am not a fan of bots. I barely have used autovoting in all the years. :D
It's certainly not for everyone. I don't use autovoting unless I'm gonna be away for a long time. But I like bots when it comes to games like SL.