With vote buying, high rewards on a post then, are not a measure of the appreciation or value of the content of a post that earn those rewards, but instead reflect an ability to buy votes rather than earn them through the content itself.

That's not true. It can be an evaluation of the content, an appreciation of the content, and I argue that it is after all. If someone feels that their content is worth so much of their SBD or STEEM then why wouldn't it be fair evaluation and appreciation of the content?

As for the experiment, why not. I recommend @honestbot even though I've never used a bot, I use all my SBD/STEEM to power back up.