Okay so like, where do I start

This game doesn't deserve to look nice and presentable on the store page for the state it's in.
It is a game I enjoy.

It's getting looooooooong-term support in technical areas, such as the 64bit update and the Vscirpt update. There are people working on it, and they are doing what they can, and it is good work.
However, it's not getting the current-and-foreseeable-future support it needs, which is to have some kind of solution to these bots that are rotting the most primary way to engage with it.

Valve has made a few middling systemic changes to iron out the bots by somewhat streamlining the votekick system (good) and disabling chat for free players (terrible). These changes happened years ago now.

Now, bots are designed by humans at the end of the day, so it's easy to say that bots will adapt to whatever Valve throws at them. Therefore, it's not an efficient use of human resources to work on squashing bots, and Valve does not owe the world that work.
While it is true that fighting to outright stop bots is an infinite arms race, there is still value in doing a partial job: Combating anti-cheats demands processing power. An "advanced" bot that can do the technical gymnastics to get around all the checks, but it will demand a bigger and costlier machine. Valve should be fighting the bots even halfway. Just make cheating cost more than a Raspberry Pi, and more in electric bills.

A saying I've heard is "anything worth doing is worth doing badly." While maybe not true for the handling of hazardous materials, it's generally a good philosophy. And the problem is, Valve isn't handling these bots badly. Valve is simply not handling the bots.

Okay so like, where do I start This game doesn't deserve to look nice and presentable on the store page for the state it's in. It is a game I enjoy. It's getting [i]looooooooong[/i]-term support in technical areas, such as the 64bit update and the Vscirpt update. There are people working on it, and they are doing what they can, and it is good work. However, it's not getting the current-and-foreseeable-future support it needs, which is to have some kind of solution to these bots that are rotting the most primary way to engage with it. Valve has made a few middling systemic changes to iron out the bots by somewhat streamlining the votekick system (good) and disabling chat for free players (terrible). These changes happened years ago now. Now, bots are designed by humans at the end of the day, so it's easy to say that bots will adapt to whatever Valve throws at them. Therefore, it's not an efficient use of human resources to work on squashing bots, and Valve does not owe the world that work. While it is true that fighting to outright stop bots is an infinite arms race, there is still value in doing a partial job: Combating anti-cheats demands processing power. An "advanced" bot that can do the technical gymnastics to get around all the checks, but it will demand a bigger and costlier machine. Valve should be fighting the bots even halfway. Just make cheating cost more than a Raspberry Pi, and more in electric bills. A saying I've heard is "anything worth doing is worth doing badly." While maybe not true for the handling of hazardous materials, it's generally a good philosophy. And the problem is, Valve isn't handling these bots badly. Valve is simply not handling the bots.