Thank you for the thorough and well written piece @michaeldavid.
I am new to the whole bot thing and have just started to give it a try. I tend to agree that people upvoting spam or bad content isnt the best - I think it goes completly against what Steem is trying to achieve. It should be that through curation rewards the best content is found and rewarded.
I think that bots have a place for people like me who are 'Minnows' and need an extra boost to get noticed. It can be frustrating when you create what you think is an excellent post (sometimes spending hours writing and researching) and only make a few cents. I agree that it can be sometimes encouraging to keep going if you use a bot and make a bit (even if it is from you like you said!).
Upvoted and following :)
Well said. You rock!
Thanks for the support.