I think you missed something this time. When bidbots were popular, people used them and the trending page was a mess because it was free to get on there.
If they have to decline payout, yes they still trend - which is the point, it's advertisement - but they have to pay to do so. No one would pay hundreds of dollars just to get a shitpost trending.
And if someone does, well, at least we all got paid for it.
Yeah but no one really wants to see the assorted stuff that gets promoted.
Why would you look at trending, if it was a big bunch of adverts? Especially an outsider.
I am open to promotion in some way but not back to that. I would be fine if different front ends sold advertising. That would be fine. It any other innovative, non platform destructive solution but not a tweak to the old way which trashed the platform's standing.