While NFT sales and token releases on ethereum and other chains with smart contracts are absolutely botted and scalped/sniped very aggressively, there has been a lot experimentation on how to avoid this. Whitelists are one (bad, IMO) solution, various type of auctions are a fairer solution that aren't that popular in crypto because people are mostly interested in flipping the asset rather than obtaining it at a fair market price.
For things like tickets to a concert or things that people actually want to keep/consume, auctions make a lot of sense.
Bots will "snipe" hyped up releases of NFTs or tokens, using various techniques depending on the chain. On ethereum and most others the miners participate in this in exchange for a tip (usually an open market where people can bid to be first in line). Since miners produce the blocks they can order the transactions however they want and put the highest tipper first.
The goal is just the same as ticket scalping. The botters/snipers will just list the the asset on the market immediately at anywhere from 2x-10x the original sale price.
At its peak during NFT mania there were tips of millions of dollars being paid in tips to miners to buy up 75% of the supply of an extremely anticipated NFT collection for another couple of million dollars ( the sale price ) and still coming out in profit.
