I definitely see your struggle and understand your position on this. Like I said, I don't mind bid bots I just think the amounts are out of control and its messing with the natural order of the system.. I use paid monthly upvote services so my articles don't sit around with only $0.13 (my upvote) forever. But I only get a few dollar boost to get it circulating. I honestly get most of my upvotes from being part of a community in discords, I have to read and comment on a few articles to drop my article in these better discords and it really helps my article get seen and comments on it.
I guess the thing that really pisses me off is all the shitty content that is getting rewarded because of vote buying.. I don't think there is a way to change that, it is just demoralizing for people like me who have put in so much effort into the platform only to see it get washed away by people who don't care about good content, only a score or a post payout amount.