You've made some interesting points in this post.
I know the controversy surrounding bid-bots: and I have never used one before because I want my writing, knowledge and posts to earn merit for what they are... my writing skills, knowledge of what I'm sharing.

I came into the steemit realm in July 2017 (right around the same time as the BTC boost of value), but I didn't come for BTC or cryptocurrency (you know that from our previous commenting and chattering).

I have been noticing a change of things here... from larger SP account holders powering down (not sure of ALL the reasons for each person/account doing this) and even a shift in payouts to larger accounts.

Why? I can only speculate... but I can say this... I have no desire to power down anytime soon; pending a personal catastrophe occurring.