It is something, but keywords and word count can be gamed; hence why we need to be careful when we consider which part of the process to automate.

Auto-curation is a gray thing: it all depends on the user. For example, @johngreenfield taking a break from Steemit and set authors he knows he enjoys the content on auto-votes. It's like a sponsor vote, the creator is encouraged to continue to work while he is gone.
@fulltimegeek does something similar. He has a whitelist of authors.

Like you said, it can't be entirely a good thing, especially when we hit over 41% on Steem Auto. It's like half the people aren't even here. At some point, auto-curation tends to be abused anyhow.

As for @slobberchops career choice, well good luck to him. Checking out all their wallets, I think only the actual Steem Cleaners and maybe some industrious Reporters in their group have good compensations. Other than that, I don't think even Bernie's Abuse Reports can top those in terms of returns.

Spun articles are already around. Some are more apparent. Some are not. And yes, I do agree with the reading part because that is one thing the AIs won't be able to do for some time and picking up spinning is one of them.