Yes new post from Intelliguy. I'm definitely always on the lookout if you post anything. I can quite call myself a fan of yours now lol.
I really agree on your take on Self Promotion. People like Donald Trump and Floyd Mayweather built their fortunes on this technique, although its Ironic that these guys I quoted are hated they really do know how to promote themselves and more importantly pay themselves.
I don't think it's really a bad idea although it definitely is awkward. Kinda like High Fiving yourself, but if we take two steps backward and zoom out a little bit these are byproducts of basic human instinct of being a bit greedy and wanting more for ourselves and at this point I don't think it can be stopped no matter how often people call out this kind of behavior. As you browse Steem articles you'll find lots these self upvotes and much worse people begging for upvotes and Followers ( YouTube subscribe me I subscribe you tactics all over again lol ) and it is what is. What I would suggest is looking at it on a different perspective and that is " at least for now" a marking advantage of Steem. I look at it as some sort of good way to introduce it to the general public and pique interest and damn it is really effective. Heck, it's one of the first few reasons I got introduced to Steem and got me interested in the first place. Falling in love with Steem and it's community altogether is a different story. Kinda like come for the free $ stay for the community thing. I hope I'm making sense I just woke up from a nap when I saw your post and immediately read and replied.
Here's my upvote and I'll upvote myself to drive it home. :)