The "fake it till you make it" is as said borderline greyhat / negative : create false demand, use bots to fake real usage, spam forums, ... like many platforms did. While doing by hand what is not yet automated can be useful, this is not tolerable and I think those actions should not be condoned as business as usual. Or we'll get what we deserve when those companies get our real data instead of more conscious ones.
Download counters, view statistics, advertising statistics all contain the 'fake it till you make it' as they're inflated. Heck, even investment data does till some amount. You know what they say about statistics...
My point exactly: it's not because it's common practice that it's right. And of course spamming with bots is worse than inflating views but neither should be done. Not a holier than you attitude but expect employees for this be companies to have the same attitude and inflate their work hours or fake work copy pasted from the web and take credit for it maybe: does that sound right ?