You could be right @carlgnash. I think even without landing on trending, even just spending not very much on bots you can still land on Hot for a while. Which makes a difference. I made this connection because even though I experimented with bots on a few posts, the vast majority of my posts don't have any paid upvotes and I can see the view number on each one. Some of my older ones would only have between 10-20 views, which were probably coming from the few followers I had.

I could also see how many new followers I was getting. Now as you said, they COULD have been organic, but yea, I think it's about equally likely I picked those guys up from the small bump in exposure.

But yea, at this point I can see the bots are a losing strat, they're like a desert mirage. In the end, the best plan forward is exactly what some Steemit OG's told me from the jump: Post good stuff, engage people, be patient.

Also I totally agree with you about the macro problem with bots. I'm a bit torn on how big a problem its going to be in the future though, because technically it has an easy fix. They can just ban bot upvotes. I think from a business perspective Steem is killing it compared to other blockchain platforms and their focus is probably on growth of all the Steem blockchain projects as a whole right now vs trying to perfect Steemit. Even with the problems, there are thousands of new users daily, and people are using and enjoying the platform. Of course there is a lot they can improve, but it's doing quite well now problems and all which I think is promising for the future of Steemit.