I personally don't see the problem with upvoting one's self, and I wonder how many people that make pronouncements about how it's "against what Steemit stands for" have actually even read that whitepaper, to have any actual idea of what this project's stated goals even were in the first place. People have simply projected their own interpretations and goals onto its own.
But bottom line, Steemit is about making bank without a bank. Period. No matter how altruistic others may claim to be, it does ultimately fall back onto that for the overwhelming majority of its users.
Outside of outright funds theft (i.e. scamming) and plaigiarism, I'm pretty much down with whatever though, so I'm a bad person to be making moral judgements here.