Using bots to replace users-lost-to-protest has always been the goal. All that matters is that the numbers go up.

This is good for the sale (IPO).

Twitter had the same plan--keep counting bots. Elon (or some advisor on his team), rightfully argued this point and eventually it lead to a lawsuit, that was then settled out of court.

Google and facebook have been selling "ad impressions" of questionable human-ness for decades. None of these sites have any real incentive to find out how many bots are on their platform.