Them not going after bots is the context I did not have and fair enough. I would say that if we agree hivewatchers is doing something on behalf of the community then both bots and users must be treated equal, this is actually trivial for them to do. If that is the case the criteria needs to be public and we can assume that all the big stake will back them so it is not a case of caring whether the community likes it so with public criteria at least people will know. Obviously, at that point it is another case of finding a new platform because this shit is wack lol.
As you mention though you have dealt with this for a few years now, and I wonder how this has not reinforced a different commenting pattern? To be clear I am not against you commenting hi, I don't care but it is fascinating to know how a person becomes a target so often.
Long story short, I've seen bots go after other bots on Steem. So, it has happened but it seems that it doesn't always happen. I guess it depends on the coding which will tell the bots what to do. Some people have said they have reduced some spam thanks to bots and that may be true to an extent. So, I'm not totally against having bots to the extent bots can discourage spam perhaps, well, until you're accused of being spam yourself kind of thing.