The most interesting take I've seen on the content quality concern was out of the Bo Burnham "Inside" special released during COVID - particularly the quotes "can I interest you in anything and everything all of the time" and "apathy is a tragedy and boredom is a crime" from the song Welcome to the Internet. I think the problem is less "bots and recycled content are filling the pages up" and more "the expectation we're supposed to find a sense of community and realism if we just scroll through enough endless popular short form content".
Take this post for example. How many are going to do the level of research in the post on the <1,000 word post itself? I know I'm not, it's just not something to make more than a passing comment like this about. Similarly, the comments here will total to perhaps more words but even less engageable content. Just be aware of what you're wanting to get out of content and where/how you're actually going to find that. If you're going to Reddit or HN (or any other aggregate site) where you put in low effort to consume large variety of content quickly you're most likely not going to make any deep connections or associations with ideas or people in that session. Bots and recycled content are top performers in that kind of environment precisely because that type of content lacks a need for anything more substantial.
Take this post for example. How many are going to do the level of research in the post on the <1,000 word post itself? I know I'm not, it's just not something to make more than a passing comment like this about. Similarly, the comments here will total to perhaps more words but even less engageable content. Just be aware of what you're wanting to get out of content and where/how you're actually going to find that. If you're going to Reddit or HN (or any other aggregate site) where you put in low effort to consume large variety of content quickly you're most likely not going to make any deep connections or associations with ideas or people in that session. Bots and recycled content are top performers in that kind of environment precisely because that type of content lacks a need for anything more substantial.