[thaeli]

That only holds up if X remains constant. Option #1 is already considered acceptable by these low-quality sites, so why wouldn't they instead choose:

3. Automatically write a relatively bogus article to drive clicks.

For a business model that already works for Option 1, Option 3 is the same thing with less overhead.

I do see how this can greatly enable propaganda / fake-news creation however. Time spent editing an article doesn't inherently mean time spent making it more accurate or reality-based; it can just as easily mean time spent twisting words to imply a propaganda goal. This may not be your goal, but it's an inevitable consequence of the technology.