I think the upvote bots are great for new minnows (and even experienced users) to get their post above all the spam. And also as a promotion tool if you've written something incredible and want to advertise it to the platform.

I think there is a question of balance though. If the level of sold votes becomes too high there is a risk that you move towards a system where you mainly get votes by being in a circle or by purchase. That's a very different system from the original set up of the platform. And one which I think is much less attractive.

We're not in that situation yet. But I think there need to be more ideas put forward to solve the issue of economic incentive (it's financially more beneficial to set up a bot or sell delegation than curate etc). I don't think upvote bots are the best answer to that (very tricky) problem, even if I support their use as a general day-to-day tool.