Don't you believe that excessive vote buying can harm your brand, too?

The majority of followers you generate through paid trending positions, will never start interacting with you on a regular basis, since they didn't begin to follow you for what you do (being like-minded people that have a true interest in being part of your community) but for your ranking.

You can actually do a test: publish an article and don't boost it at all. Then check how many of your ~3,800 followers really engage with you through quality comments :-)

Only organic growth is sustainable, especially when it comes to community building. That's at least my personal experience from almost two years on steemit. Even though this is a rule that applies for many other market segments.

Well, everybody has to find their own way..:-)
All the best for yours!