Great article. It was a very timely topic for me.
I only take my recent Splinterlands play seriously BRAWL, I've started using the bot as well.
According to my friends who play Axie, Axie doesn't have the phenomenon of bots dominating the top spots. They say the management is eliminating the bots.
But Splinterlands is positive about bots. I don't think that opinion in itself is a bad thing, but I think Splinterlands is far too positive about bots. I think this is one of the factors that make the game boring.
I could see my life moving in the right direction because of this game. And I made all kinds of friends. That is why I want this game to develop as a game and I want to help it as much as I can.