If I'm honest, you do not have to use bots because you have very good followers either because of your high voting power or because they publish quality content.
On the other hand, I spend 5 to 6 hours doing research to be able to do 1 quality article so that my publication lasts 0.02 cents so I have to resort to bots so that my publication does not remain that way.
Here in steemit everything is an interest if you do not have a great power to vote no one follows you and that sometimes discourages me because I spend a lot of money in bots and it brings me a lot of loss because I do not like to see my publications in zero.