buy and sell depth and stock manipulation

A discussion point regarding Buy and Sell depth....

I have often wondered about the legitimacy of Buy and Sell depths and whether or not they are simply manufactured (to an extent) . My example is that if the current share price of a stock is say 10c, often you will see depth on the buy side all the way down to 1c or even lower. I can understand that potential buyers would position themselves 10% 20% 30% below the current SP on a penny stock, but do people actually think that they can leave an order at 1c and it will get hit?? Or is this manipulating the buy depth, as in some cases there are large orders really far down the cue that add to the perception that both the buy and sell depths are more equally balanced.

Or in the case that someone is giving a stock a push upwards often orders will appear on the buy side a few pips below the SP to create a appearance that the depth on the buy side is increasing, then when they want the stock to slow down the buy side thins out, and the sell side gets stacked a few pips higher.

So my question is, are these buy orders all the way down the queue legitimate or BS? and if they are BS - isn't this simple manipulation??

BTW, my thoughts are that the share market is quite clearly often manipulated, but does anyone ie ASIC etc ever do anything about it or is it put in the too hard basket??

PB