Bots don't buy goods and services, they only generate numbers on spreadsheets. I can see larger companies being OK with bad sales numbers because they can spread the blame around, show the board what great engagement they're getting for their spend, but that cannot last. Eventually your advertising dollar has to bring sales.

And imagine being the CEO of a smaller company where you have more control and leeway.

"What's our reddit spend over the last 4 quarters? How many views we getting? What percentage leads to a sale (forgot the word for that)? What?! Fuck all that!"

Saw an article the other day where the author did some digging, even wrote some software to help, came back with 72% of ad views being bots. Now what if I told you 72% of your advertising spend was for the privilege of having bots view your product? Aw hell no.