A good overview @distress2success.

Bots themselves are not the issue, so much as people who want to game the system for illicit gain... using bots. Thankfully, there are some pretty good community initiatives in the works, in addition to the ones you've mentioned. The @sherlockholmes account tracks down and usually shuts down larger botnet organizations and false identity accounts, working with the @sadkitten bot which can flag thousands of comments per day. The @spaminator crew also work to catch and "unreward" spammers.

One of the things about taking a "community approach" to the issues here is that Steemit bills itself as an uncensored platform... and that's part of the allure. Flagging content isn't censorship... it's merely community members saying "I don't like this content." In general, most people here to exploit the system will tend to cease operations if you remove their financial incentives.

Now, the part of your post I wholeheartedly agree with is that Steemit is a community, and too much automation makes it feel unnatural. Communities are built by people not by code or technology.