You make some good points, and I agree the comments do get a bit untidy with the bots. Upvoting valid non-bot comments gets the humans up top though, which I try to do if my voting power allows it.

I'm still experimenting with the bots to see how an early or late bot vote affects other votes. Like you say, and early bot vote may result in some people moving on without voting, regardless of the quality of the post, which is a pity. I find I get the best results by beating the bots to a post, but not voting too early.Some won't mind giving an upvote regardless of there being a bot vote already. We're all trying to find what best suits us, and that's great :)