Had my share on the bot discussions but sitting out since last weeks´ Townhall also because I didnt want to be that guy re-pondering or "complaining" every day again, also because of some hope for improvement. Though I think it might be necessary (decide yourself if its to save the game economy or own investments. For me its both, I could as well just dump what I have, ofcourse with a loss, but I would prefer to play and grow in Splinterlands the next few years) ... so just leaving my full agreement on all your points here. There is no fun in competing vs. Bots, anyone who is honest would admit that. Besides the botfarms draining the game economy is also a huge point.
Simple thought experiment for anyone advocating pro-bots:
If everybody just bots/farms to extract value out of the game and loses interest in playing because botting "makes more sense" and its economically more worthwhile to start up your own farms instead of collecting cards - what will happen to the game/economy? Spoiler: We would be a very decentralized dead wasteland with some optimized number of bots leeching out the last few cents before its fully lights out.
I would very much prefer seeing Splinterlands becoming a popular E-Sport Niche for TCG enthusiasts (and maybe more, who knows what game modes are in the pipeline as well...), therefore agree on the chessbot comparision.
Btw: I even disagree on secondary bots for Whales being necessary (though thats not what I am fighting against, but I think "some bots allowed" rules wont work, gotta be all or nothing), we can just rent out our leftover cards if we want to get them "working"
Well described ...