There was also botting for money-making purposes. Real-world money to buy items wasn't much of a factor but obtaining resources still cost time and effort that many players (including myself) didn't particularly enjoy when you can only spend so much time on a game every week.

Botting to level up skills kind of misses the point, in my opinion. What's the point of a skill cape if you didn't do the grind yourself? Botting to earn in-game money makes a lot of sense, though: skip the grind to be able to afford armour and go straight for the interesting quests and fights.

I think RuneScape's choice to lock content behind a paywall rather than connect real money to timers/in-game items was the right one.