I've recently started trailing the OCD downvote for all of the reasons you've stated in your post. Already started getting retaliatory downvotes from someone and their sock puppet account... but that's just par for the course.

Remember those "send x btc and receive 5-10x back" scams? This is basically what's been happening on Steem on a smaller return scale and the only people getting scammed have been those not buying votes and all investors that got rekt by price going down cause this is not something that is sustainable.

Well said. I've been banging my head against a wall for around a year loudly pointing out these facts on steem related posts that were getting a lot of views.

I knew 18 months ago when I studied how much ROI you could get by stacking bidbot votes that it was a scummy tactic, stealing from everyone else, so I didn't do it. Despite losing out on potential returns as I watched the steem price tank because of exploits that many of us were pointing out, I don't regret my choices. Well, maybe not having the fabled 70 rep after 2.2 years when so many others bought their rep scores 😂

IMO, if we can get rid of vote buying on steem, and have the promotion of posts be only paid by burning steem, then we'll be on to a winner. Advertisers and projects could get the none organic exposure they want while positively effecting the token price. Fingers crossed it works out that way 🤞