Hey - thanks for the awesome, detailed comment! I think that bots have their place for minnows, definitely. I think you cross a certain threshold in terms of expected return on every post whereby they're just no longer needed, unless you intend to promote something into 'hot' or 'trending'. In fact, demand has gone so crazily through the roof at the moment that I think only @randowhale (when he is awake) and @minnowbooster (limited to 5SBD of transfers per week) remain guaranteed profitable.

Agreed that we should just ignore the low-effort, low-quality posting users - problem is, for every user giving up on this approach, another one will have joined the platform. I think they're unfortunately here to stay for as long as the 'promise' of easy money remains. :)

Steemit is definitely like life: you get out of it what you put in, some people have unfair advantages, other people have it harder than they deserve, and the sooner you do away with illusions that you deserve anything or that it should be "fair", the better.

Appreciate the lengthy comment and feedback on this. It was a real pleasure putting this series together!