Market demand. They get built because the capitalists think that people want them to be built. If people don’t want them to be built, they would go out of business and shut down.
But to answer your question, my city is sprawling and growing vertically at the same time. For the new neighborhoods, yeah, gas stations, bank branches and other such businesses do get constructed in the central commercially zoned part.
Here’s the thing imo. Bots used well can be really useful. The most attractive part about Reddit/Lemmy though is the comments. Seeing what people have to say about stuff is quite nice.
BUT. I can see how bots can be super helpful to subscribe to content where community interaction isn’t that important (like art posted by artists on Instagram, Twitter and so on). The main attraction is the art itself. Not the comments.
This way, I can see what my favorite instagram artists are up to without selling my soul to zuck.
Idiots.