So far, bot notification are much more useful than email notification for certain things like merit, mention and quote etc. But email notification also have their uses even when you can't trust bots such as message notification, email change, and password change etc. But of course it would be great if the forum also had more complete notification like it has been possible with bots so far.
Bot notification is more convenient and safe than email notification.
I can confirm that too - but I haven't tried it so far.
I tend to look back at my own post history and find anyone manually citing my post. There are probably a few I would have missed if they weren't so important - but bot can save me a lot of time.
I cannot imagine spamming my email with any mention of my username. I don't visit my email often and I don't subscribe to third party newsletter. So, when a mail drops in my box, I know it is for work or other official messages that needs attention and not a forum mention by a random user.
I even want to stop the default pm notification through email.
I don't have any notifications enabled that let me receive email from forums - in fact I rarely even check how many emails are filling up my inbox over a long period of time. Plus my account email is custom built and I only use it on forums - not on other platforms which would prevent me from getting a lot of newsletters.
I understand, right now bots have been helping forum users get quick notifications regardless of how many notifications they allow - so might try that soon too.