Also, it's really not that easy to distinguish a bot from an actual player.. Unless they're just sitting there doing stupid things that are obvious. And who's to say that when GM checks them they'd be doing the same thing?

Busy sign on top, many players already do this because of the incessant RMT tells they get. I have it on too most of the time because it gets annoying.

Unresponsive to /tells.
Also, due to the RMT /tells I keep getting, I actually have all my /tells go to a different chat tab. Many people I know do this as well. I have 1 for social LS/FC. Another for party/raid chats and yet another for crafting messages. I keep my /tells on the party/raid tab and when I'm not in a party or a raid.. well, that doesn't get checked.

Now, I'm not saying your suspicions are unfounded or false, most of those people you noticed probably ARE indeed bots.. But without sharing your experience of having been there for days on end noticing the same players repeating the behavior, GMs have no way to know for 100%.

Also, I think the problem with detection stems from FF14's Cross platform nature. You'll see some people logged on for almost 24/7. afk,busy,dancing whatever it may be.. Because the game doesn't kick you out. Many will just never log out. So it's impossible to track people based on playtime which I'm sure many other games do.