You make some interesting points here. Bots aren't good for the ecosystem of steemit, but without them it's hard to make any kind of impact. It's a catch 22 for sure. I suppose there is no one right answer. I do think though, seeing that the platform is supposed to be decentralised, flagging only gives control to people who decide 'this content is not good in my eyes'. The problem with that is everything is subjective. And is the whole point to not allow some people to dictate whether they will allow the creativity of others? Especially as it's the people with money who decide and can actually heavily impact someones post payout. Same goes for bots too though. It's a circle. In my opinion bots and flags are equally as disruptive in some sense. If bad content was ignored and not bot voted then flags wouldn't be needed. But then on the other hand.. perhaps the people excessively using bots thing there content is good enough to be trending/making stupid amounts per post. Who knows! Good content here though @guyfawkes4-20 very thought provoking.