My view is very similar to yours on this! Another thing I notice is that in the old days on steemit, it was very difficult to get votes. Mainly our BR community. Either you paid what little you could for some accounts to vote (which wasn't always profitable) or you were suffering joining. Almost without support from the community itself. Over time, the person started to have a slightly better vote and voted for himself since he was not properly recognized. I believe that some of this lack of recognition in the past ended up making some people keep this practice. I may be wrong, but that's what I noticed and it would be what I would do if I went back there that way.