Have you ever considered that your unilateral decision to cut the age to 3.5 or 2.5 is insufficient and ultimately just a temporary measure to stop the problem you are trying to solve? I think a different approach could be far more effective. 

The bots have a vested interest in not promoting shitposts as well. That is why many of them lowered the age on their own accord without any prompting by you. I think people underestimate the amount of crap on steemit. I'm not even sure a week would allow enough time for a group like steemcleaners to truly sift through all the bs. 

I have an idea for a solution but I'm not sure you'd be interested in hearing it. I'll post it in a reply to this message. Regardless of whether or not my idea is any good, I think it would be more beneficial to consider less destructive courses of action as a community.