This is an interesting one to me, I still consider myself pretty mew to this platform in the sense of know what works what doesn't etc. I pretty much tried out all the bots to see what they do and how it affects followers and upvotes.

In my ideal version of steemit there would be no bots and no selling votes, I think that is just a version that is not as easy to "gamify". When I first got here I knew bots were already in place and the ability to buy votes was already established, that's the way it was and it was not "coded" out. As soon as someone tells me there are bots and the ability to buy votes I can instantly create a million scenarios of how that is going to be used so I never had some "ideal" or wanted it to be different than it was. I just looked at it as ok I know what I'm getting into so I have to deal with it or not bother.

The view of buying votes maing it appear pay to play is a valid point but on the same hand it sort of already is pay to play, sink money in and buy steempower and upvote for more. People already complain about that a lot simply from that angle. Which again to me was, hey that's jut way system was set up so I knew what I was getting into and the same reason I bought thousands of steem.

The problem I see is how does anyone actually stop the vote buying ? if you don't stop it then its going to be used. In my mind its like going to war and one country has nukes but the other country says ok nukes are destructive to the environment so we wont use them. You know who is going to win. Unless the actual developers make it an issue and try to stamp it out I almost view it as a loosing battle. I am not one to full on pay for tons of votes and try to "abuse" it but I do try new things out like hitting trending page just recently to see how it effects me. As of Now it just seems to have gotten me a lot of spam comments and some grief for being a "vote buyer" but I still view it as just trying things out.

Your plan sounds like almost a view of patreon but spread out which In some ways I think is a good idea to help boost lots of newer accounts with quality content. I do worry it could be seen as just another bot and another way to "game" the system but I guess I don't ponder it too deeply because I think in how I see steemit even something like that wouldn't be allowed because I could imagine quickly other people setting up the same sort of system but without your good intentions.

Not sure where that leaves me on the topic but it is something I keep an eye on to see how all this develops because I think your warning is a valid one and a possible outcome. The one thing I know is to be "successful" here you need actual real people who enjoy your work and are willing to upvote on a consistent basis and that's my long term goal. How I go about trying to achieve that may very as I try things but my goal remains the same.

Good luck with the project and I will donate some sp to the cause to try it out and help some quality work.