My main concern was the big lazy investors that would delegate to anyone sending them a memo asking for delegation with the promise of good returns while they didn't care two bits what they would vote on or how much they were abusing it for themselves. This is something you don't bring up in your post at all, nor do you bring up the profits bid bot owners make. You say that its great ROI for SP holders yet many of them are powering down...

Large investors not caring is a problem, but that is not the fault of voting bots nor does it mean that paid content promotion services are bad for Steem. I did mention in the post that there are a number of problems with the Steem platform but I don't have time to go into them all. Also, it is a great ROI for SP holders, and not sure what the fact that some of them are powering down has to do with this.

Another thing you seem to miss in your post is that currently buying votes is profitable yes, but to whose expense? Care to mention that part?

You tell me? I'm not sure what you mean by this. Buying votes should not be directly profitable (i.e. you shouldn't be able to buy a vote worth more than you paid), and I think that will go away over time as the market becomes more efficient. That will help solve some of the current problems.

surely rewarding yourself with a post every other day for doing this work does not seem cool, you're already profiting a lot by running the bid bot.

This seems like an unnecessary jab at me and i don't see how it serves any purpose other than to try to make me look bad. I typically post about once a week, (this week was unusual with two posts) and I don't see anything wrong with promoting them. If you have an issue with me or how I use the platform I'm happy to discuss it over PM but I don't think it's constructive to this discussion about the value of voting bots on the platform.

Paid content promotion services create real utility and value for the STEEM token
Right, just like the "promoted" tab did?

Again, not really sure what you're saying here. The promoted tab was poorly implemented and doesn't provide value to anyone.

Not to mention the returns from bid bots are so high that most investors have completely stopped curating because they keep comparing their earnings with others and feel like they are losing out big time. This is of course also due to the unpegged price of SBD.

I agree with this, and my whole point was that these problems are not the fault of the voting bots. It's just simply people trying to maximize their returns which should be expected in any system. If Steem is to succeed it needs to create a system in which the method of maximizing individual returns benefits the system as a whole. @trafalgar addresses this topic often and much better than I ever could.

Being able to both bump your post up into hot/trending while at the same time not losing any value? Wow, almost seems too good to be true, eh? Why doesn't everyone buy votes? Oh wait, yeah cause if everyone did it wouldn't be profitable for everyone

We are on the same page here - it IS too good to be true right now. It's like that because it's a small, inefficient market. The cost of buying votes is increasing, meaning people are paying more than the vote they get is worth, because people are starting to realize the ROI comes from the increased visibility rather than the vote directly. As Steem continues to grow the cost of buying votes will continue to increase which is great all around for everyone. It means better returns for SP holders, more investment into STEEM, and also higher quality content being promoted.

Its early in the morning here so I apologize if I can off aggressive and I might be a bit all over the place but would be nice to continue the discussion. I have a few ideas in mind and planning right now that could possibly improve on this but I don't think current bid bot owners are going to like it very much.

I would love to hear your ideas, and feel free to PM me if you want to discuss in a more real-time manner. I'm all for anything that will improve the Steem platform, regardless of what that means for voting bots.

Overall from your comments though I think you're misunderstanding a big part of what I'm trying to say. The fact that buying votes is currently directly profitable is a big problem, and one I'm working to try to fix. You should have to pay for promotion, and it's quite valuable so it should cost quite a bit. I feel we are getting there slowly but surely and things will only get better as we get there.