I tend to agree with your comparisons, will look out for your future statistics on this topic.
When you first arrive at Steemit you tend to be drawn into the use of bots (because it is a new concept), personally I feel using from time to time is not a bad addition if linked into communities that you already belong to.
Concept on Steemit is blogging/social media, so obtaining a true connection with people, it is better to get to know more people through communities, commenting and replying.
Reading an article really enjoyed perhaps not within your topic (you don't wish to resteem), share the content further to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or LinkedIn depending on the content, help each other to get further mileage off of posts.