I've seen Stemians who have reached a good reputation say they used bid bots to grow. I see others on their way up doing the same thing. Maybe some use the bid bots for profits, but in these cases I think it was a clear situation of using bots to get visibility, increase reputation and power up at the same time. I haven't used them yet and I'm still undecided whether I will in the future or just take the longer road.
As for SBD value, by its definition should be pegged to US dollar, but I've seen many agree that this mechanism is broken (plus the evidence is clear). This opens up the possibility of high volatility for SBD as well, which I think is exactly what pegging was trying to prevent. In this case, is SBD necessary going forward?