I think you are right on the influence part - at least mostly. The only thing with that is when others also upvote you, the argument against self votes goes right out the window.
The reputation thing is a major fault IMO.
Take a look at my post that yours inspired, I go deep into the whitepaper and sort out some game theory about self voting:
https://steemit.com/steem/@kyle.anderson/subjective-proof-of-work-some-rational-comments-on-the-self-voting-trend
Excellent post, Kyle! Thank you for pointing it out. I think you covered a lot of details I remember reading and thinking through at the time, but as you mentioned, the white paper is just too far out of sync with what the site is today (reputation, "flag" instead of downvote, radically different distribution amounts with "bad whales" taking advantage of the system, etc)
:) glad it was interesting.
Although, I am not so sure the whitepaper is it of sync with what the site is today. Steemit is a portal into steem, just like busy.
I would just argue that steem is the first of many more experiments to come. I don't think steem correctly addressed all the problems needed by a network like this. I am passionate about the now though.