My favorite thing about steem is being able to spend the time to interact with people and be an active contributor to the steem chain​ and be able to make at least someone's day better by commenting something nice and meaningful on their page.

Exactly.

buying steem on the exchange, transferring it over to their account and thinking the only way they are going to make the money is by selling their votes to a bot.

This is another kettle of fish. At least they bothered to trade. What bugs me in the discord games and shows is that it doesn't even reflect on the platform. There are no evidence besides memos and wallet transfers. They do not powerup, do not write, do not curate, do nothing but come on voice and sing or spin a wheel or recite a poem. If they even try to post their entries on those games, then it would be kosher but no. It is too much trouble.