Excellent points and well written.
The best remedy for the bidbot mania within a monetarily-incentivized system I have come across is using and promoting the #nobidbot tag.

In a way this all starts because some don't give a damn about justice and constantly pay their way up even for low quality posts, elbow-mentality and "me first".

Excuse me for using these cheesy analogies but: the more people give in to the dark side, the stronger the pull of the dark side becomes.
In this weird way the current situation is somewhat of a cosmic test - will we continue the old monetary system scarcity and abuse game rules or decide to not make a deal with the tyrant and stand together, helping great content appreciate organically.

I have used bidbots in the past and I am glad to say that those times are over. The trending page is a nightmare ;)

followed!