About your comments here, very well laid and well thought out. What people really virtually always fail to factor in is the curation take off the top of the value of the post (25%) of which of course we often we assume we are going to see very little to none of that value. So if you are getting a 200% upvote with the 50/50 split payout, take the 50% off the top (curation payout) then you are left with a 25% loss, if return on investment is what you are seeking. The bid bots are terrible in the fact they are often pumped up at the last second as people that own the bots are shill bidding or the bidders at that point don't care and want to spend their money to promote their post. Which post promotion right now, is really the very best use for instant upvote bots, and bid bots. The funny thing is that this is already creating a trend on steemit that forces people to create organic relationships and use the bots more as a surefire expense and loss rather than a building block as it was used a few months ago. In my opinion, you need to maximize your curation returns if you can, and get into an efficient curation program, which fortunately I started one a few weeks ago on steem auto (cryptkeeper17) .