I agree with you - on everything. But I believe there's a reason almost everyone ends up using bots: lack of options.
There is no "groups" function on steemit or any other means to reach out to good authors and commenters to say "hey, my content is good too, can you guys look at it"?
No, we're forced to spend money on bot votes and resteems to get visibility. We really don't have any other option at the moment.
I do have an idea: have some people act as groups, where there are "chat" posts. The post content itself could be nothing but i.e. "Friends of Joys Daily Chat', where everyone comments to talk about something.
The bad in this is the chat posts gets really messy. But we could create a new account specifically for a group chat, no regular posts.
The challenge of this idea is having to explain to people the comments in this group-chat-posts are meant to be used for small talk and get them to try it.
Still, I believe this would be better than off-site chats because a lot of people don't want to use a program or app they're not comfortable with, so it would unite everyone.
This is the best I've got to address this issue. Let me know what you think about it, please!
I have had similar ideas, only recently. I was once apart of a chat room who's moderator would reward people for meaningfully participating in the chat with free dogecoin. The chat room was small only about 10 participants on average. But, if I may marry that experience I had with your idea, then, I think it has some legs.
The steemit chat room would have to be moderated and those who participate meaningfully would have to find worth in participating. A reward system of SBD/Steem distribution would be very attractive. Especially to new and lower ranking steemers.
As I experienced in the dogecoin chat, those who had long winded responses were often ignored(that was me at first). After I refined my style, I started receiving regular rewards for participating in the chat.
If there were a way to reward chatters with SBD or Steem or UpVotes or Curation in real time, this is where the idea would have appeal.
I just saw in my head movies, the chat could be an extrapolation of a common post, only in real time. The moderator could post a topic and perhaps a couple paragraph contextual basis. Then, those who can participate in the chat will gain access by upvoting the post(at 100%), then all replies will be logged as comments on the post/chat. The moderator(s) would give up votes to comments that make sense, and could reward individuals with SBD/Steem for elevating the discussion.
I have a little bit of coding experience no where near enough to construct what I see in my head.