Not even if it's bid botted crap downvoted but not enough to take it out of Trending?

If it is bid botted crap and only being lightly downvoted then we aren't where we want to get (yet?).

Better than before at least.

Steem (or its front ends) treat promoted content (advertisements) similarly to organic content. Other platforms have slots for advertisements interspersed with eye ball catching organic/curated content

I agree about this and have said so in other threads. We generally need more vehicles for advertising including the one you described.