I have been using vote-buying for some time now; but in my case it is more like an attempt at gamification of steem services. My SBDs & SP is so low that it does not really have any impact on the SBD pool or the payout of my posts, but I get to engage more with the steem blockchain, to get in touch with others in chat channels & discover new steem-users. I get to see how the votes are distributed, I learn about the platforms and their extra services, I see how some people use innovative ideas in the steem-chain. Just recently I was introduced to SteemFollower, which is in beta yet but maybe it turns out to be the basis of a good concept.

After 1 year, I have mixed feelings about steem; it seems too much of a "circle-jerking" and of the 90-10 (or whatever ratio) rule: 90% of the money here circulates between 10% of the people. Or is it 95-05? I was not expecting easy riches, but seeing shit posts making ton of $$$ is disheartening; one major concept that drew me in steem a year ago was "quality posts are rewarded". "QUALITY posts" not "RICH MEN's posts." On the other hand, since I am not a very social type of person, I keep a low profile, I don't like the overuse of the word "community" etc, I had that coming (the low payouts I mean).

Anyway, it's not about the money, currently for me it's more about the people I met here and their true quality posts, like this one.