Lastly, ecency-points self-voting...I don't like it and think those votes could be better-used to open relationships and support others.

Yeah, I was wondering about this. I got rid of HP delegation on Dlease because I didn't feel it was being used correctly and I got rid of using Ecency points for the same reason.

I remember a Bitcoin podcast where someone said that the incentive of participating in the Bitcoin network is to do the right thing because it could mean you could earn a block reward.

I feel like HIVE still has some incentives that are misaligned with the network. Of course, HIVE is still developing and this could be worked out in the future.