There's some obvious polarization when it comes to whether bots should be part of curation or not. I'm strictly on the side of bots because bots are just an extension of ourselves. They are programmed to do what we want them to do. They are neither good nor evil.

If we embrace bots to the extreme end of the spectrum, then imagine if everyone interacts with the Steem blockchain through, essentially, bots?

What is the difference between a bot and any front end that surfaces content in a certain way, (i.e. by displaying trending content, it automatically influences the vote on Steemit.com), that has an impact on the overall vote?

If the purpose of a curator bot is really to serve the users well, then the bot should really be custom for each user. If you can't get that fine-grained, then it should be custom for the category of content. A curator bot may be used to autovote, but it may also be used to just act as a filter and presenter of content, and leave the voting up to the end user.