You are spot on. Bots can add to a system, but not the way it's happening right now.
The bots only respond to collect curator points and make money.
Unfortunately because of the way Steem(it) is set-up it's very difficult to stop these bots.
The programmers need to create an easy way to stop these bots, but I'm not sure if really high on their list of improvements.
RE: Apparently the Bots have already taken over steemit