Ehh well timed exposure from a new account can do good things. The other day I resteemed a post by a new user. My vote took him from 25 rep to 28, then a lot of people who follow me commented and upvoted and he ended with at least 10 more rep than he started with, and a decent payout on his post. That is not bid bots, but if the content is worthy they have the same effect. And of course if I spent money on a bid bot to upvote someone else's post, I would probably resteem it too..

I agree that bid bots are money losing now, and more about promotion like they probably should be. I think they can help new users, who are making quality content though.