I was in Steemit when the bidbots started to multiply. I think in that time the priority was to attract investors over the user engagement. Decreasing the curator time window and increasing the curation rewards worsened the situation.

I am glad that the pay per vote has decreased. I think the community should keep working detecting that practices and nullify them using downvotes. The purpose of curation is to find and promote quality content, not to reward Hive holding. Investors should have a return, but not by selling votes.