You are spot on with this my friend, I have never been one to hide my own obsession with the bot’s - but then I remember when they first came out on here - just 6 or so - look at how many now!
I see both sides of this from People, I really do understand and agree with those that refuse to use them - it does go against the fundamental of rewarding good content - the bot’s just care how much you pay them to upvote a post.
You have to work hard with the bot’s, make sure you watch the steemitbottracker like a hawk and only use a bot that in the last few minutes of the round has a good size of profitable bid left - that is key because once a bot has zero profitable bid is when you start to loose money.
If you put the effort in you can get the SBD back you started with, plus gain Steem Power. But it’s a gamble, and you can loose out easily as well.
I lost count but especially after one of them spammed me! I just look at the old proven ones now and ignore the rest.
It's a lot of hard work, almost like watching the trading charts for quick profits, one reason why I use them so less now.
For almost everyone who uses them, it's a loss- looking at both time and money spent. It's more psychological I guess, especially for those who spend hundreds of dollars pushing their posts to the trending page.
If you look carefully you will find those posts have a few big bot votes and then 0-value or 1-cent votes. They don't add up to much - and the whales don't vote on bot voted posts. Not that they vote much on good content anyway.