Good explanation there @whatsup. I personally started viewing steemit.com as a proof-of-concept when it got DDOS'ed back in October while busy.org was functioning fine. It showed me where all this was heading. Especially now with major use cases being developed (DTube, DLive, DSound, Steepshot, etc.) Steemit is just a front-end to show all that's going on on the Steem blockchain.
Using bots is a matter of why would I not use it while everyone else does ... I don't use them myself because I find it to much hassle, but I think one would sell him or herself short by being a goody two shoes while everyone else reaps big rewards.
It can be a LOT of hassle especially if you use them as much as I do. I am very bullish on this platform though so I choose to go through the crazy amount of hassle. I think new users with a few posts at .01 should definitely use a bot to get them to the .02 earnings threshold but it seems like most people on here are not real serious about this platform.