While I agree with allot of what you say, I don't think not upvoting content of those you want to support just because they use bidbots is the answer.
No upvotes or comments on content that has bid bots on them will never happen. Its not a fight that can be won.
If your not a whale with a big enough upvote or don't have whales upvoting your every post then you are highly unlikely to hit the Trending page without the use of bidbots.
It's easy for a whale to say .. don't use bots. But if you are a newbie they are almost essential to your success on this platform.
In short ... I agree with what you are trying to accomplish but don't agree with " punishing " good content providers ( content by your own admission that you like ) by not upvoting just because they are trying to be on even playing field with everyone else that uses bots.
I also don't like the flag feature. It gets misused all the time. If you don't like content then you can show that by not upvoting it.
It's my answer. If you want my vote, don't use bots. Simple. Earn your way to get support, not buy it. It can happen. if people care to make it happen, just like anything in life. I don't hit the trending page. So what? I'm not a whale. Whales have at least 250,000SP inmy book, and that's a small whale. A real whale has over 1 million SP.
I'm not punishing good content providers. I'm not flagging them. I'm only not supporting them, as I don't have to support anyone I don't want to. I'm not taking away their rewards like a flag.
And you have the right to do that. My comment was my opinion on the subject matter that you posted about.
My view is Good content is still good content regardless of a bidbot vote or not. I shouldn't of used the word Punish which is why I had it in quotation marks. Let me rephrase ... I don't agree with not rewarding good content providers because they decide to use bid bots to reach a larger audience.
Trying to stop EVERYONE from commenting and upvoting bid bot users is a fight that can't be won. It would be next to impossible to get EVERYONE to stop. It just won't happen.