Clean domains that are worth a bother available for just a registration cost have not existed for years now.
Whatever is about to expire, goes to auctions first and gets taken apart there. Whatever doesn't go to auctions then expires and gets dropcaught and then potentially goes to other auctions if there are multiple people interested. And whatever lame crap doesn't get caught there, expires and gets picked apart on Expireddomains.net in seconds. And whatever was on the internet prior all this, has been scraped thousands upon thousands time over, so there's nothing left.
If you aren't bidding/catching/buying somewhere along these levels above, then you won't find anything worth bother ever. Demand is much higher than supply, thus the domain auction costs reaching ridiculous heights that I have never though possible.
"Sniped by automated bots" - If you mean dropcaught, then yes. That has been going on for basically decades, You have relatively large companies that make living based only on that. Dropcatch, Namejet, etc.