In an ideal world, you are correct. But Steemit has a discoverability problem unless you have a huge following on Steemit already, it's near impossible to get started on a platform heavily stacked in favour of power players. I don't think the bots are solely to blame, the Steemit devs need to really find a way to make new content discoverable in a more natural way.

At the moment the only way to be seen is the trending page or the promoted page, both require spending real money by proxy in the form of Steem Dollars. With exception of the community led curation groups and special categories, as a new user you're discouraged from day one.

I don't think you should expect to come to Steemit and makes tens of dollars on your first day, but if you're a great content writer, you shouldn't have to pay or hope that you'll be seen by groups/powerful individuals willing to help give you a chance.

If Steemit had a natural algorithm that automatically picked up great and interesting content, an algorithm that couldn't be manipulated or bought into, then there would be two ways to succeed: pay to play or just produce great content.

I am still relatively new to Steemit and I am happy with the progress I have made. But I am not going to lie, I kind of expected to be in a slightly better situation than I am right now. But, I am not discouraged and I am not going to give up. My intention is to climb to the top, so I can help other newcomers in the same situation get the chance they never usually get.