I am with you on this and came to a similar logical conclusion. If you don't mind I will quote myself from a comment on another post by @davemccoy

'I have made a decision not to vote for posts that use bots, (sorry to the good post writers that feel they should use them).
I think the whales and witnesses that run the bots are shitting where they eat. (Excuse my expression) but where do they think this will bring their cash cow in the end.
Maybe they want steem to end up as just a group of circle jerking bots. I don't, and with my small vote or lack there of I can try to steer it in another direction.'

I only quote myself as I have given this alot of thought and am trying to think of a community way to solve this issue. There are a growing number of users voicing their concerns about bots and I believe if it is not resolved lots of us will get the hardfork out of here.