Great piece, @yabapmatt.

I think what is being overlooked is the obvious to me of what the root cause of this "need" of using bid bots is to begin with. The answer to that question, in my view, is the lack of viability to begin with on steemit and inability of good quality to rise to the top organically. If someone new really could come on steemit, post a decent quality piece and see it go viral on steemit to make decent money, then growth would become organic. In my view firming up this core foundation is where the focus should be on and not SMTs that seem to me to be more of a distraction and may become a problematic build on a weak foundation. Now maybe I'm over simplifying it for some, but the core foundation of any business is the always the customers and that is where steemit seems to be failing thus far.