> Would you be able to "compete" with users who build their engagement that way?

I can see people using "bot comments" to fool the competition into thinking people want their products a certain way when they actually don't, therefore ruining their business by tricking them into pushing a product that won't sell.

But I don't see how realistic bot comments will make a person make money. People who earn with engagement need humans to do that, not bots. They want customer leads, monetization through ads, sample real opinions through polls, upvotes when it comes to steemit, etc.