Wow, that reply could have been a post on it's own! And I'm absolutely fine with agreeing to disagree :)
I see your points, and you're by far not the only one and I can understand this position. Unfortunately there are lot's of accounts out there taking the self/circle-voting to the max. I did not invest any Fiat, I'm here for the fun, and if it returns something, even better. So my intentions may be different. I like your example of going out to the own restaurant, but with a different argumentation. Your brother payed upfront for the meals, eating them with the family makes this financially a zero sum (but with a nice atmosphere!). Not selling them or eating at another restaurant means financially a loss. Steem votes however are kind of "for free", giving one out is not an invest that has to bring returns. Your invest in Steem(-power) gains value with the Steem price, which increased by >100% in the last few months. How much could you make with self-votes? (rhetorical question, definitely much less and yes, this is actually on top...). Call me dreamer for leaving out the opportunity to vote for myself, but I think in the long run Steem will profit more if people give their votes for stuff they really like. Unfortunately, we're actually pretty far from that...