unlike SP and SBD and voting power, it isn't something users have to learn about
Any user that is planning to earn curation rewards would. Whether curation rewards are good and bad is a whole separate discussion, but as long as they are part of the platform they are something that users will need to wrap their heads around.
As for upvoting yourself with your own accounts, I'm unsure but I think the reward curve they are proposing is meant to somewhat solve that issue.
I'm a huge fan of the formula change, but technically it makes the problem of self-voting worse.
Oh and thanks so much for the resteem
Welcome! :)
I hadn't considered users who seek curation rewards because I always consider new users to be minnows who can't gain curation rewards until they power up. But although I had thought that somebody would fully understand the system before investing I have noticed at least one large SP account with very little understanding of the curation system so I guess there is that.