Yea the purpose of those bots is to make the server look like it has people in it, so people will actually join. As a regular I am surprised you have not caught on to that yet, but thats not really important. It is still really easy to know when the server is empty, just look at the server info for people that have not all joined at the same time, an actual score, and have more than 6-7 different names which you should get to know so you know when people are actually playing.
"To attempt to have intercourse with a hornet's nest is a very bad idea," Siv During Livh, a psychologist and expert