I think we have come to very similar conclusions. I have also decided (in part due to the relative lack of SBD in rewards) to stop using bots as a general rule. However, for posts that I have put a great deal of effort into, I am likely to throw a bot at it.
I have seen a better engagement due to the policy of giving a small upvote to good comments (hopefully my commenters are subscribed to dustsweeper).
Yeah that seems pretty fair and I've received quite a lot of similar responses actually. Do you think you get more engagement when using them?
To be honest, not really. Most engagement comes from Discord promotion. I notice if I don't promote a post on Discord, I get much fewer comments!