Bots are the biggest problem Splinterlands has. Since they scare off all the new players even before buying a spellbook.
When you are new to a game it is completely normal to make mistakes like putting a ranged monster in the first position. If you are facing opponents that are as new to the game as you, you would still win about 50% of your matches. But with bots that fight especially in the lower leagues the first opponents newcomers face are bots that play on a level that even an experienced player would struggle winning against.
Without new players the game will inevitably die since few people are willing to invest lots of money into a game that they have just found on the internet.