I don't think follow bots are a good idea, because they make the federated timeline the same on every node. Without them, the federated timeline is still an expression of the interests of the node's users.
@lambadalambda
Sure, but they're probably unavoidable.. Best option remains to filter them, client-side (and instance-wide if there is a consensus/other type of rule...)
@jz This is mainly a reason why shouldn't use them on your instance. I don't actually mind them following me.