I love your post and I appreciate that you took the time to write it. Focus or no focus :)
I am with you on this love / hate bot relationship. They are a way of making some income and gaining some visibility. Both are shallow, though. They are not organic.
On the other side, it is so hard to achieve organic recognition. So ... bots are the easy way out.
Do I use them? Not at the time and very rarely if at all. I do delegate to two of them so you can find me guilty.
Bots are a phase in the evolotionary development of the platform. Not every route taken is a route of beneficial progress. As in the real life.
Yes, this platform is a game and a mirror to real life which is an ultimate game.
Losing focus too :)
Ps: since I am a devoted steemworld use I regularly check your posts to see what's new.
Ps2: I am late for upvoting the post. I will make it up on some other posts of yours :)
Ps3: keep on writing out of your expertise and your passion. That's the way to go.