Sounds Fishy - Steemit Bot Tracker ?

I've been creating content for Steemit for almost a year and recently saw a post by @jerrybanfield about using a bot to get more upvotes and make more money. At first I thought it was a fantastic idea and jumped on the band wagon using steembottracker.com in hopes of making it to the trending page. I admit that I tried it; now I am feeling bad about ever throwing my steem towards a money making bot. That's not why I am here.

I have mixed feelings about this. Pay to play is what I call it. What happened to just consistently making great content and organically having your content grow in popularity? I'm a photographer, vlogger and artist; I work my ass off to create good work. A lot of time, equipment and money goes into my photography. I often times travel and have assistants to help me pull off good work...and now I have to pay to play too?

Steemit is starting to seem fishy to me

I know that art is in the eye of the beholder, but to be honest when I see someone post a pixelated cell phone image of their cat that makes $250 steem; I start to wonder who upvoted them and if they paid a bot. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture of steemit and maybe I too should care less about the quality of the content I produce.

I started on steemit because I want to inspire others, have engaging conversations and create good quality work. I'm starting to get a funny feeling about steemit right now.

One other note: I went to a steemit meetup in Los Angeles this week and I didn't hear one word about creating good content. It was more about how a community of bots can make you money. I haven't used this word in a long time but "Amway" came to mind. Again, this sounds fishy and I have mixed feelings right now.

Some recent work for those who are interested in photography and not bots (links to videos and blogs created for steemit at the end):

vivi----lightenupandshoot---natural-light_6902990773_o.jpg