Gosh I have the same exact thoughts. Some of the posts that I make that I think are exceptional that take me 2 hours to write I'll buy a bot to up vote it to maybe get it close to a hot or trending page but people are spending $400 a post to up vote it and it's impossible to get on the trending. About 8 months ago I made it on the trending page when a random whale swam by with a group of people and I made it. Gosh that was a good feeling, spending so long writing that post and having a ton of people appreciate it. But now even the new accounts of people that have 10sp will sell their votes to smart steem for like 0.5 steem a month when they could just vote their selves and help their other plankton friends out. I really hope to see SMTs help... I think it will but we will never know. Whales should be as dedicated to this platform than anyone else, finding exceptional curators and up voting their posts, not selling them. But what ya gunna do. I just want to find active people that are actively posting that I can develop a relationship with. If I can influence these people to stay active and keep posting maybe we could start steering away from that stuff. I'm not saying stop selling your votes, but if you think someone's product is good, give it a solid up vote. Sorry I'm ranting now! Hahaha