The quick answer to this question is no but the answer could also be a yes. It all depends on each individuals game plan when using the upvote bots.
I think if one continuously uses the bot to upvote their content they will only keep making losses (sometimes you profit though), but on the other hand if you used it for a while to gain popularity and attract followers to your blog, then it will hasten your route to success on steemit.
I personally have used bots for my first submissions on steemit as I thought it was necessary if my #introduceyourself posts was to be noticed.
Anyways steemit seems to all about bots now and everyone is using it, so we might just get to that point where using bots will be totally necessary if you must succeed with blogging on steemit.