Thanks for your points and I agree many of them you made. But I think debates on bot is not a main issue (not even in the title) regardless of their smartness or dumbness. The point is design of incentives.
Numbers can be inaccurate, but for example Steem is giving 0% to whom don't vote and 1~5% ROI to those who vote. So voting is always more profitable than not voting. Rewarding on participation seems good, however, there is no alternative to keep profit other than vote.
The incentive system what I try to design is like this. Steem Power basically has fixed ROI of 2%. If you vote, you will get between 1~5% based on your voting performance instead of fixed 2%. If one is very confident to vote well, s/he will dive into the voting game, but if one prefer more stable income s/he will stay on 2%. That's my main idea of ***diversifying*** rewards.
Regarding this, I wish steemit accounts are excluded from fixed income as well as curation rewards because they are not an investor.