In most cases, the bidders actually lose...meaning if you add their SBD and SP payouts together, they would have been far better just powering up the SBD in terms of profitability. Of course, this doesn't take into account the added visibility...which is why they do it.

To me this whole problem hinges around an ineffective algorithm for both the "trending" and hot "tabs". If we users start putting pressure on Steemit and other Steem sites to change it, we can fix the problem.