Bots on steem are a promotional tool. Maybe if steem changes the way content is discovered, we arrive at a point where bots are obsolete, but currently you really need them. And the community needs bots that take quality seriously.
Have you been a minnow on steem before the bots? Find a few of the 1 year old accounts and ask them for war stories 😊
Considering that I've made plenty of wealth starting from nothing in June, I would argue that you don't "need" them. Also considering the side effects of such bots on non-users of those bots, I would also argue that these bots come at the detriment to this larger population that you simply won't find on the trending page that are receiving less attention because it's easier to do nothing and delegate than it is to go out of your way and curate.
Curation groups have done significantly more to help the community than these pools that simply serve as gatekeepers of the trending page. You take money from people who want money in return and give them the attention they want. It may seem like a win-win, but the pool is shared and the environment is shared so of course there are losers in the arrangement. Perhaps you watch trending too much to see this.
Anyways, it is obviously more profitable to delegate than it is to curate. If we were all rational people, we would delegate to bots which would leave no one to curate. The end game is a "Ponzi" scheme that requires new users to buy the investing class (me and you) in order to be advertised on a site that the mainstream doesn't care about.
Who is going to use that? Why would anyone pay to get paid for their content? That's too much work. The ecosystem collapses and all this imaginary money actually becomes imaginary money. But I'm guess most investors could care less since they are being paid in SBD and can abandon ship whenever the tide turns.
As for "flag" wars, at least attempts are being made at social consensus. They aren't bad. Unless ROI is the only thing that means anything to you.