I like the fact that you used the word 'culture' here. It's pretty much about that.
Voting bots and vote buying are two different things to me. I also use a voting bot to flank my manual curation. But that doesn't have anything to do with vote trading on a grand scale as it is excecuted right now. To me a vote bot is an 'assistant', a time saver. But I have 100% control over these votes and am not selling my votes in order to get attention in return.
It's a complex issue... And I'm happiest that we're talking about it!