HUGE thanks for stopping by and commenting. I am glad that you saw that your work is still appreciated and useful even a few months later. I was so glad that I found your post after searching for so long to find good info on this topic. Thanks for doing so much of the leg work for me in advance.

I understand the sentiments on "proof of brain" and I agree that value in comments "should" get upvoted on their own. Unfortunately, in practice I have found that very few of my comments get responses or upvotes on posts where I don't have an established relationship with the author. The trick, of course, is to develop that relationship. Many of the folks in my target audience get absolutely no attention for their posts and many of them are good (if not not great). This mostly comes from the fact that a quick look at their Wallet shows they have zero and therefore they aren't interesting. Altruism comes with stability and these folks need stability of payouts so that they can justify staying on the platform. I upvote my comments for two reasons. One, is that I increase my curation/author rewards. Two, is that many of my followers want to upvote my comments and usually do, but fear it is a waste of their upvote because of "dust". My upvote actually gives them a curation reward and a better one at that.

My brother owns an Italian restaurant that does fairly well. He takes his family there for dinner at least once a week. Why, because his money goes right back into his own pocket. Should he spend that money at other restaurants? Of course not. I don't see Steem as any different. I'm my biggest fan.

In terms of growing Steemit and Steem, I am invested in both. That means I intend to get a return on my investment. Keep in mind that if I don't make enough return on my time here, I won't be here at all helping anyone, I would just delegate my SP to some vote-bot and spend my time in some other venture while gaining passive income.

The purist idea of not self-voting might be great for someone that blogs full-time and has few outside responsibilities, but that is the exception and not the norm (not here or anywhere else). I share the better part of my time and nearly half of my SP helping others here. I think it is a good mix and one that I can live with. I know that doesn't sit well with some folks and I don't fault them for their thoughts on the matter. To each his own.

Thanks for reminding me that the 100% upvote power is somewhere between 10 and 11 a day. For some reason, I had it stuck in my mind that it was 11. I will edit it when I get back home from my meetings today.

I sincerely hope that I continue to see you in various Steemit circles and I hope it is okay with you that we can "agree to disagree" and still engage on the platform.