Haha. Thanks @razorr3ble! Well, they have a point, but it's an isolated point.

I did spend money to advertise-by-upvote, for sure! I would never deny that :) But it's money I've earned the old fashioned way elsewhere. It's money I'm putting into Steem, which increases its value which increases the pool, and it's crypto so it is risky. Also I haven't heard of them going directly to the platform itself or to the whales who make these bots specifically for that purpose, and considered these whales' own time and investment into the community during its riskiest times to get them where they are now.

So, I get their criticisms, but I also feel like they could be a little more broad in how they look at what they're looking at. Allll good :)