From the perspective of someone who has been here a month :) ~ I noticed fairly quickly that bidbots are a necessity for us newbies, in the current environment of Steemit. I only ever use them for posts I deem worthy of notice though, and only spend maybe $10-$12 SBD on those self-deemed worthy posts spread across two bots.
My normal posts make between 25-80cents usually, so it's a nice boost, and I usually get most of the SBD back plus a teeny bit of Steem Power. I now mostly use the bots because I know I'll get more SP! I'm not being greedy, I want more SP solely so I can give other people decent upvotes. It took me a while to get my vote to 1cent and I can't wait to be able to shower people with more. (I tend to give a dollar every so often to Minnowbooster also so I can upvote random posts appropriately because I feel bad about my measly cent, so another useful use)
Anyway, long ramble aside! Don't feel bad about using them. :) We do what we have to do.
I agree. bots are necessary for us newbies.
Great comment and I really like your approach.
I think you're right on there. You may not earn much in the way of SBD, but you're likely to at least break even, and the SP is definitely worth increasing for influence. It can be powered down into tradeable STEEM as well, if you so desire down the road. So it is worth money. And a good bit right now. I think it's at 3.8 per dollar as of today.