It was your use of words like scumbaggery and the active calling out of our use of bots which framed your response to be negative in my mind. It appeared like you were pointing fingers at us. In the past I've done online reception for organizations and I'm used to crossing paths with people with electronic pitchforks, so I apologize for assuming the same of you. :)
We actually need predatory organizations to strengthen the structural integrity of the platform
We need a larger participatory audience. The numbers Steemit pulls in relatively small compared to any of the non-blockchain systems available to the masses. The more people exchanging value within the system, the more vibrant and diverse the system can grow.
This is how any economy works; think of how the body solves many of its logistic problems with major blood vessels and small capillaries. There are only a handful of the bigger vessels, but countless small structural connections which keep the whole thing running. Similarly, the greater the flow of resources that becomes possible, the greater stability Steemit will have over the long run. It's this transitionary period of growth which offers the greatest challenge, as exploitative, predatory organizations can latch onto those weaknesses and, like vampires, suck all the value out of the platform, leaving a husk for the rest of us to walk away from, hat in hand.
We're addressing this problem, and the larger metaproblem of having the masses adopt the blockchain. Our cryptocurreny, Equality Keys, and the systems and academies we are creating are designed to ease this challenge of adopting the blockchain for people.