Wow thank you also for the exhaustive response. I'm not as up to speed then on the view that the uvbots hurt or take money from others tho.
I did grow a great organic following the first time with my waiter blog, I just didn't get paid from doing so. I'm of course trying to do both by importing it to here. Plus adding content related to my other interests of course - things that wouldn't work on a waiter blog.
I see what you mean about followers consuming the same piece twice. I think if I go this route I'll put Re-Post or Re-Blog in the title then, but I still have way more new followers that haven't seen any of those, than those that have. Like I mentioned it's been two years since I posted and many of those folks abandoned Steemit since then. And like you said, I think many of them are following me just to upvote my promoted posts early. Money/earnings being in the mix seems to have always blurred the line between Steemit being a hobby and passion for people, versus a means of income.