I wrote a post about an idea called Steeminators to combat things like rewards pool abuse, and I think you might find the idea interesting. Unless something like steeminators is implemented, then I think rewards for the typical person will continue to move towards the rewards portion of the yearly STEEM inflation rate because more and more tools will likely be developed that enable people to get much of the benefits of self voting without blatantly self voting. One popular tool that already exists to do this is delegating to minnowbooster (i.e. per their own words, "delegating STEEM POWER to the @minnowbooster bot and get roughly the returns you would get if you voted up only your own posts, but without the shame!" Disclaimer: I currently delegate some steem power to minnowbooster, and I also self-vote fairly often.