This is so accurate, and a major problem. I think you'd struggle to get a lot of minnows to stop using the vote buying bots since for many it is their only way of getting their posts some visibility. I'm certainly guilty of that. But this is an symptom of decentralised networks and unregulated economies. If there is a demand for it, it will exist.
The only way I can see to get rid of these things is to remove the demand, take away the incentive, but that is tough to do.
I think self voting posts is acceptable, especially for minnows like me (bit of self interest there) since many people wont bother looking at a post or voting on one that has no votes yet. I'm not so fussed by people who upvote their own comments, its like laughing at your own joke, but the ones that spam it are appalling. Especially when they dont even bother to upvote your post first.
The comments section makes me physically ill.Then there's this guy: https://steemit.com/ecology/@ecoworld/1942-2016-72-years-of-nuclear-part-1
Holy fuck, man. I didn't know this type of shit was going on. This place is just propelled by greed now. I am leaving once my power down completes. These are most definitely not my people.
Its a prime example of the shit that comes to steemit. I wish there was some kind of an admin group on here that revoked accounts that do this, but it seems its in the hands of the users. We need more people exposing these turds and flagging them into oblivion.
I would say (though probably futilely).. please don't leave, steemit needs people like you.