Self voting is a contentious subject, whose mention draws a lot of bad blood.

The Common factor nonetheless, is that ;everyone' self votes, including those who are acidly against it. They may not do so in their 'known accounts', but with 'multiple account' ownership allowed, it is obvious some people upvote their posts using their alt accounts. That is still self voting, albeit pretentiously.

So the reality is that every one upvotes. And yes, there are advanatges to that. I agree with you on some of your explanations, though maybe not with all, but most!

For example, i agree that if you have invested in steem power, one way to earn is to self upvote. That is a fact, which only those who have never invested in steem power disagree with! But that it is a fact all the same.

I think, and this is my opinion, that the conetntions, should be on the extent to which one self upvotes, relative to voting others. I am of the mind that the a fair balance between self-voting and upvotingothers is the way to go. Because again, self voting, and only self voting, is also not good, whether or not you have invested in steem power.

But to do so, while also voting others, is a fair deal. Becasue as you correctly say, one way of encouraging more members into steemit is if they know that they can invest and earn curation benefits, which includes from self voting but also one way to retain new users who are unable to invest from the start, is to reward their quality works

And i am glad you actually agree when you say

When they encounter other good writings,
they are pleased to evaluate good writings as voting rewards, too.

That is very important for the health of the system, because it encourages those who can't afford to invest from the onset, to also join and stay, confident that they will be rewarded if they make good content.

So overall, what are my thoughts on self voting: This - One, It is bad and harms the platform, if one only and only selfvotes their account. Two, it is acceptable, if one self upvotes his/her account while at the same time also upvoting others who create good content.

And i say this, with a clear unbiased mind. And just so you know, i have never really self upvoted from since i joined, never! It is a record i am proud of , alhough maybe that is because my upvote is still worth 'nothing'!!! lol.

EDIT -And one more thing, can you by the way look up on my blog and check out! I am running a an initiative aimed at rewarding planktons. Check it out if you have some time, and if you can manage, give me your honest opinion on it.