As long as bots run the platform, it's basically useless as a social media website.
My hope is that Steem Inc will slowly start selling all of their shares in the platform and let the community take over.
The mismanagement of the platform is hugely their fault IMO and once new Steem interfaces start popping up, the bots will no longer be an issue.
There are already people working on building dapps that completely erradicate any posts on which bots have been used.
Which is a step in the right direction.
Yeah, this wasn't even a recent problem. Even in 2016, I'd stopped using it when an original story could get over 100 votes and maybe stagger 1 cent, while a new account uploading nothing but selfies purporting to be some innocent girl new to Steemit could get hundreds of dollars. Not sure if it's that bad anymore but recent trips to read posts especially on trending seem to suggest not much has changed.
If it's true bots will be eradicated, at least there will be genuine traffic, but I'm not sure even that will attract back those who've left.