I won't get into it all that much here, but I will sum up why I think we are going after the wrong fixes with it.
How I view things...
Self votes are not bad at all, in fact it is how things should be operating on here!
The way I look at it with self votes is akin to mining...
All the POW coins are mined, and the people that get those mined coins are the ones that have purchased the mining hardware. If they want to mine more tokens they have to buy more equipment. That is where the inflation comes from for the currency and if anyone wants a piece of that currency they must mine it or buy it on the markets. Many of those coins aren't having major issues with demand for whatever reasons, and many don't really have anything else going for them.
With steem I look at the posting and self voting just like mining. Those that get the coins are ones that have invested in mining hardware (SP). If you want more coins, you purchase more equipment (SP). If you want to "tip" other posts that is fine and your right. A model like that seems to work well with other coins. I think a major problem with steem is that you have coins going to people with no economic skin in the game...
That is why I think self voting on steem is simply a way to mine. Let some other thing create value for it, be it as a currency or some other app using it, which is exactly how many of the most popular POW coins operate currently.
My 2 cents.
