buckworks - 3:45 pm on Oct 24, 2008 (gmt 0)

constantly moving the cans, boxes and "product" around on the shelves in an effort to please the bot

That comment reflects a seriously limited view of what it takes to please a bot. You don't please the bots by tweaking just for the sake of tweaking, you please them by building on good foundations in the first place, like logical file structures, logical semantic structures, good source ordering, intelligent navigation, lean clean code, paying attention to the details that ensure accessibility for all users, and so on. If those foundations are in good order, you won't have to think about them very often and you can indeed focus on the content.

Note that every one of those bot-pleasing things will improve the user experience in some way, some for a few users, some for every user. Both/and.

It's also worth noting that "designing your site for users" implies that users are able to find your site in the first place.