I'm not sure I agree that it's dead. I had great success following Reinstecker's models a couple years ago, but mainstream use of auto-blogging has definitely been declining.
I do still perform a number of important functions though by employing the basics of an auto-blogging approach. For example I might aggregate and combine RSS feeds and manipulate various elements in automated ways to create posting templates for twitter accounts, facebook posts, web 2.0 blog content, etc... So, yeah they're kinda still cool! I just don't generally make the money directly anymore. It's more of a function of what these "auto-blogs" can help to further streamline or automate.
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There are definitely guys/gals on here that use auto-blogs and directly monetize them. I do agree it's largely a numbers game, but I bet someone's hording some secrets about simple ways to use auto-blogs to build SEO, funnel leads into email squeeze templates or app channels, and direct monetization possibly via ad implementations including cloaking.