Hey, @steevc.
I still manually curate everything. I read posts, and if I can find something to say, I do that. I have yet to try any automated service, though I have been thinking about it more lately. The thing is, I like reading and commenting, so the upvote is just part of the process, if the post causes me to read and comment.
From what I can gather about the account you site above, it is authentic, but as you say, an exorbitant value gets attached to his posts which generally are motivational or inspirational, which some people have a problem with, too.
I don't mind the motivational/inspirational. That's fine. However, very few posts, in my opinion, are worth anywhere near $500-$800 or more. But then, since he bots his posts up quite a bit, how much of that has he already spent? It's the false sense of earnings I don't like, and the blame isn't necessarily with him or the vote sellers, but with the system. A simple amount on the post showing the bot votes, or a net amount, or even the word, promoted, would be great.
Looking at his account, he's been here less than I have, but already has a significantly higher rep and is a smaller dolphin. I don't know if he's invested or no, but it's not at all farfetched to say he's managed that through vote bots alone. I just know, on it's own, that's a lot of growth in something like seven months time.
His rep is mostly from those bought votes, so it means nothing really. Okay, so he gets lots of comments through being on Trending. Maybe that's what he wants. I don't think there's a massive profit when you buy votes unless you get lots more from voting trails or elsewhere. I just wonder if some people have allowed their votes to be used and don't realise they are just encouraging behaviour that is not so good for Steemit. I really don't care about the content of his posts, but I agree it's not worth that much. I want to see a good share of the rewards going to others who choose to not buy their votes.
I don't know if it's worth checking into whether or not he's bought STEEM and powered up, but he does have over 7,000 SP, so it's coming from somewhere, and I'm not aware of anyone who has amassed that amount of SP since January, so something's going on. I've seen reps going pretty high in short periods of time thanks to bidbots. SP, not so much, but maybe the other folks I've stumbled upon weren't powering up their earnings.
At any rate, as long as the illusion exists, people are going to do it. And if they actually are making some healthy earnings, they're not going to quit. However he gets those upvotes and comments, they really look impressive to the untrained eye. Annoying to the rest.
Just looked more closely. He's been powering down, too, so there's a couple of thousand STEEM sitting there. Wallet history doesn't go back far enough for much of anything else, other than the bot transactions and his earnings.
If a few people withhold their vote or flag him then he loses his profit even if he still gets more rep. This platform gives us freedom to do what we want, but the community can still police it. Many are dealing with some of the smaller abuse, but they are scared to tackle the big fish.