What do you guys think of current Army promotions (automatic) vs those who actually strive day and night for stripes (to be a real leader)?

The key things here are choosing an MOS that does not effectively lead into a dead end for promotions and taking charger or your own career. Make sure you go to school, take correspondence courses, excel at basic soldier skills, and do your "it's a waste of time" SSDs! The more you put into your career the more you will be able to find success. As you continue higher into NCO ranks make sure you are doing your NCOER Support Form. Make sure that you are making a network of connections. Put yourself out there and takes on those additional duties that nobody wants - and OWN THEM! That's the key to success.

Despite my best efforts, I always was passed over.

Not sure what is automatic. But I will admit that the active duty board can be B.S. depending on the unit and who held the board. I work with a guy, says he was a ranger, no reason not to believe him but according to him for his SGT board the only question they asked him was the ranger creed or something like that. What the heck, when I was at Ft. Hood I had 16 troops in my squad. 3 went to the board and we had 12 pages of stuff that the CSM put out for them to know.