>>800301if you respond to bait, a thread has traffic, ergo there is sitewide traffic
if you don't respond to bait, the catalog is populated by tripe alongside threads no one really has an interest in, with some smattering of interesting threads that may or may not get adequate responses
so there is incentive to respond to bait in a purely economic-utilitarian sense.
that being said, it behooves you to respond to bait on principle, if for no other reason that to demonstrate that you can effectively dispel its retardation, as a sort of solipsistic exercise. you don't have to respond, and you should definitely stop if you're experiencing any sort of negative physiological effects, but there's no inherent issue with responding to bait, as long as you know what you're getting into.
bait is only really a problem for those who are too stupid to know that they're responding to bait.