You are so right about bid bot ecosystem actually locking a lot of value. But the way some people are nuking posts with bidbots and are having their conceptions of "over rewarded" is not going to help the ecosystem at all. In a way, if u see, using bidbots locks more value. You send X amount of steem/sbd to bidbot. Bidbot either power up with that or maybe sell it. But the user now gets only 50% of the rewards after post expiry. And even from that 50% is locked in SP. So if someone had 10 steem at hand, they probably just have 3-5 in hand after using bidbot.
Plus we have to realize that most people in crypto are for profits. And when they not get that profit, then they simply sell off their cryptos. You may say that it is good for the ecosystem, but not if there is majority of people like that.
Between, which category would u put this post in: https://steemit.com/gaming/@siddartha/claim-your-free-hero-in-an-upcoming-blockbuster-crypto-game
I certainly didn't use bidbots to milk rewards for it, but to get more eyeballs. It might not necessarily provide direct value to steem, but can bring some traffic via google search etc.
Not always the case. There are some services out there that some bid bot users among many other types of individuals use that allow them to set beneficiaries of the post to the service. In return when the post pays out they charge a small fee and send the payout as if it where liquid to the author. The service than down power it themselves. If someone is turning a profit that 10 soon turns into more and it snowballs till they get flagged or cash it out.
Well, they'd still have to take out 50% curation rewards now. And bidbots are not always profitable unless steem prices increase that week. I have in past many times used bid bots to trend my post but it almost never made any profits. But then my intention was never to make profits but to get more eyeballs to the content which I created with hard work. Of course, not all people use bidbots for that purpose.