I agree with you partially on the as I say "money calls money".

But let's dig deeper; look this user's post; https://steemit.com/vincentb/@johanalejo/btc-pairs-and-the-altcoins-market. If you see his spending pattern, he posts, then bid on 31 different bots. In that post he spent SBD 136.5. It means that to be a profit he should receive same amount in SBD if not more, plus the SP part. So far as what I see according to SteamSupply tool, he will get 102.70 SBD + 27.115 SP. As you see there is 25% direct loss from doing this. Even considering a 1 to 1 with the SP, a 5% was gone for the Whales.

I like his posts, though, I am not sure if this is the best way to promote. Still, he has 141 upvotes, which altogether do not sum up to what he invested.

He has 326 followers since November 2017, from that amount of paid bots and investment I would expect more (the same modus operandi repeats in each post), even considering is not a copy paste cat and most posts have substance.
Investment ROI, according to this wallet he invested, SBD 1041 which comes from Bittrex, on the pipeline he has 640 SBD + 151.58 SP = 791.58 (assuming a one to one). Ergo, from 1041 invested he is down to 791.58 (+86.45 current acc. SP) > 878.03 this means an ROI of = -16%

I hope this analysis which took me some research time :P will help you to make your mind on the subject.

I love maths (though I suck at them) because they are objective, so best recommendation; do your numbers and find the best approach which works for you.

@TheRealwolf, what would be the ROI if done through Smartsteem? Even considering you would not, yet, be able to pay for so much SBD votes?