The general market is worthless, what is there really to compete over for? NQ items you might as well give out for free, so that leaves HQ's. Getting an item to +1 or +2 is pretty much ezmode. The only true market we are going to see is for that elusive +3. Bot's aren't causing this particular issue, it's the market system itself. So long as nothing is being taken out of the market, the older the server gets the more worthless items get as more and more items enter the system.

Bots you can argue are able to sit on huge amounts of money selling shards/fish (as far as I know there's no bot for botany and mining) and with that particular issue can and will devalue currency. Competition on anything else besides +3's is basically pointless so long as the system remains as it is.