Steem should always be more valuable than SBD and as such, it is not a good trade.  It sometimes is a necessary trade as you stated and as I went through with.

Essentially, what I mean by mining steem power is this:  If vote bots have a use, they are either to get you more views, or get you more rewards or a combination of the two.  Since when you pay with SBD and essentially get back (most if not all) of the SBD, you are rewarded with steem power.  I just call it mining steem power to stick with the crypto theme.

I hope that clears it up.

I did not get flagged... but I also did not hit the trending page.  That is one costly move!