Addendum: voting bots/pools are not penalized nowadays. Not by being kicked out, all that happens with trails is that their impact is minimalized because of the implementation of Gini-Simpson diversity index. You still benefit from their impact in the form of Steem rewards as well.
Again, let me reiterate that those moves were necessary because only very few locked out the top day after day.
No rule was acted on retroactively either. Everything was first communicated before acted upon. It is normal though that people also actually inform themselves about what rules apply. In fact, we have let slip a lot.
But ‘nuff said... as said, you can reach me in Discord.
Good for me to know this as I'm in a curation trail that autovotes on me every time I create new steemit post. Glad to see that the index is in play and has worked well.