Asher, thank you so much for spending a considerable part of your post promoting mine - highly appreciated!

For them, this will be a wasted vote, and I think that if you see an early self-vote, it could be worthwhile casting a vote on this content knowing that the self-vote isn't going to count.

That may sound a bit misleading. Only the curation share of the self-vote won't be credited to the author anymore but go back to the pool. The 75% of the vote as author rewards still go to the author. So slightly less rewards for the author, yes, but no additional benefit for all others from voting after that.

Lastly, best of luck with your lilo training! I hope your #needacameraman efforts were successful, so we'll be able to cheer for you with high quality video material on dtube/dlive! :)