It’s not really a brand-new type of abuse, or rather misuse – people have been comment-farming for ages. A good portion of replies I receive on my high reward posts are likely AI generated, or just too generic to be relevant. I lack time for Snaps lately, but this circle engagement is similar to what many others do in less apparent manner – you too likely get many brief, vaguely related replies on your snaps. And frankly, if someone publishes say 20+ snap/waves/thread replies a day (and doesn’t engage in an ongoing conversation under several of them), it’s pretty the same approach, except perhaps teeny-tiny more social.
Also, if the “profit” is like two dollars a day, then it’s not really abusive to me – that’s more or less what a simple Actifit report of an established user earns.