I'm just as confused as you are.
The economic value seems literally negative and the influence on the discourse massive and much too unpredictable.
The recent Romanian election where a focused botnet created a pro russian candidate from thin air 2 weeks before the election _and got him elected president_ should really be proof enough that the state of things is unnatural.
I hadn’t heard of this, so here’s more context [1] for the curious.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/articles/cqx41x3gn5zo