Yeah the bots are really where my cynicism comes from, because it makes it very clear that people aren't actually absorbing the content, they're just voting for their own benefit. Even curation trails make me feel a little weird sometimes - while I'm glad good work is getting more support through them, it's sad that 99% of the upvotes that come from curation trails are from people who have never even opened the article. But anyway, I do think there's a lot of potential in Steemit.