Yes there is no free lunch.. if we always take excessively and don't analyze and be aware of what's really going on behind (if you pay a bot to get a booster who gets the money? not you, Where is money coming from? the Steemit reward pool, not from the bot) then we pull the roots out of the ground and not just the reward pool dries out.. the whole community suffers until it's gone.
Your metaphor puts it in a nutshell.. we should stop to find excuses why we must use this or that.. for visibility, to get back what we invested or whatever.. in the end it's always the same.. for ourselves.. but asking the question is this really in our favour long term or just selflish self-destruction?