I agree with your observations. There seams to be rewards for bots and "automated" content. Even content that are old and we already have seen another place in the past, can get high rewards. This I think does not help steemit. I suggest an solution here to the collusive behaviours going on on this site: https://steemit.com/steemit/@lasseehlers/suggestions-to-improving-steem-time-to-give-feedback-after-1-5-month-on-steemit

About the bots, I am not sure how to defeat them, but I think the update that will be soon, where we go from 40 to 5 full votes per day, can help on this issue. I beleive that there is a solution for the bots vs humans, and that this needs to be adressed for this system to work in the long run.