Well... I did not initially expect this topic to receive such an in-depth run-down! But now that you have gone through the pros and cons, I am glad that you did.

It is hard to expect a person not to upvote his or her own content when that literally means shafting their own rewards. Of course - I suspect that this is more advantageous 'once' your vote impacts the pool significantly. That may trigger others to post to try to get on early.

Incidentally, I recently posted a suggestion about 'data flowers'.

I feel that it may address some of the concerns you've voiced about the quality of content being posted out there - even if it does not truly solve a number of other issues - such as the disparity and consequently harder task of getting one's voice heard, as caused by the flattening of rewards.

To conclude, since I as a minnow have very little to gain from self-up-voting, I think I'll continue to refrain from the practice - and let others judge my content.