They were still doing it when it was 4 posts. Or they were up voting their own comments to the same effect.
The problem with dealing with this and other negative things is that for each proposal made there is a quick and easy workaround.
Usually it just involves having more than one account.
All that removing the 4 posts did was make it a little less tedious. However, the 4 post limit was confusing and limiting to new steemit users too, and that is a big deal.
So removing that didn't create a new problem.
It just made a problem that already existed (using multiple accounts and up voting comments) but required a LITTLE extra work.
Would I love to see it fixed as well as the subjective down vote, I can't think of a way that I can't also think of a way to circumvent.
Good points indee, thanks. Hopefully we can find a pragmatic solution to the issue because doing nothing is bad