I know I'm selling almost 100% of my votes now after vocally being against bidbots since the day they appeared
I've gone back and forth on this issue, and I have both bought and sold votes, and I've frowned on it in the past...it's hard not to get into this game when you see rather banal posts making hundreds and all the top votes are bidbots.
BUT...
The value of STEEM is based on whether people want to buy it or not. Holders of the coin (and of SBD and of SP) are only going to value that stake if it is profitable.
So from the beginning, the central argument is that holders of SP get to decide how they use their own SP
Obviously there is going to abuse of that power; humans gotta human, after all.
I don't think that system changes are going to change the problems here; my guess is that we need more whales to diversify the vote power...true decentralization.
A second problem is that content value is subjective. I see posts I wouldn't spend a cent on make good return from people that value that content. Remember the old NSFW content argument?
I'm not a popular writer (not claiming that I should be either); most people don't find value in my work, and I don't think there should be any mechanic that forces others to vote for it (or conversely, to prevent others from voting for it, if I was a popular writer)