However, it is still very profitable for anyone to front run the bid bots

Well sure, but the real problem here is the bid bots overvaluing the content. The solution to that is downvotes which make buying votes a money-losing proposition. i.e. Downvotes -> buying votes not profitable -> people stop buying votes -> front running of people buying votes stops being profitable.

We still can't prevent people from doing it, but we can make it not profitable and even expensive and therefore not rampant.

Some improvement has been since since HF21, but things are still not perfect.