Also, what would happen if you shut down the bots? Have you studied that? Does the market all of a sudden go into meltdown or something?

The bots are down occasionally, usually due to technical problems (server runs out of memory, etc.) or the account running out of bandwidth. What generally happens isn't any sort of meltdown but spreads definitely widen a lot and for casual users the cost of exchange goes way up. It might be good for other active traders though, I can't really say.

As for out-botting, go right ahead. It's a free market, and I have little doubt it is possible. If my bot loses at too high a rate I'll improve it or shut it down.

For discussion elsewhere, I'm occasionally on steemit.chat but the best thing to do there is PM me and check a day or two later for a reply. I try to not fall too far behind on PMs (not always successful).