You don't hear people admit that very often. There was a concentrated effort to upvote new users just long long enough to get them to buy steem. Its one of those shady things not enough people condemned, like vote selling, or like automated upvoting. These things couldn't possibly be good for the ecosystem.
There is a certain viewpoint that sees any purchase of Steem by a new buyer as good for Steem. I disagree, because if they become deeply disenamored of Steem as a result of that experience, they'll never buy it again, and that is bad for Steem in the long run.
While we can't control folks buying Steem and what they end up feeling about that, if we deploy duplicitous means of getting them to buy, we strongly raise the likelihood they'll regret that decision, and then we did influence whether or not they'll buy Steem going forward - in a bad way.
The most effective weapons to control a people are indoctrination, propaganda, and fear. We see where these weapons are used most, the people suffer the most, and are least devoted to their leaders. We shouldn't follow that path. It's stupid.