I agree with you completely here. I vote myself on my posts as it isn't much and gives me more motivation/incentive. It also helps with giving my posts a bit of credibility as a smaller poster. When there is $0.00 on your post, it shys people away, when you don't have strong support from others daily.

Again with the comments I agree 100%.. I never vote my comments, only when it is worthy of value and needs more visibility.

In the end it is much more beneficial to push around your VP to others because you will build more influence and get many more people to vote on your stuff then you can offer yourself.

In my opinion though, people invest in the platform and should be able to do what they want with there votes. As mentioned is more beneficial for yourself to help others and then community as it will strengthen and so will your investment here.