It may not be directly profitable, but for users who already has money to spend a lot on them draw attention like advertising which fools all the smaller users into thinking it’ll be worth it. It also makes a lot of money for the people who run the bots, money that could have gone to lots of undervalued users and it makes it even harder to reach hot and trending. It also presents a skewed image of the content being created at steemit.
I believe the money at Steem should be shared based on quality of work, dedication to community, even friendship to some extent, but not because you paid someone more powerful than you, directly or indirectly.
I fully agree, but it seems Ned and co are happy with this sort of economy