I'm totally with you on voting, in an ideal world we would all have time to just manually curate..but real life dictates that some times you just can't be hunting out posts to upvote - and if your Vote Power sits for any time at 100% unused then it's basically just wasted. So autovoting with something like SteemAuto just makes sure when you can't use your Proof of Brain - at least the system which - let's face it - you tell it the accounts you know produce good content you like - so it's automatically using your proof of brain to reward the content you know you like - and often I try to go back to the posts I have autovoted on and comment on them.
Delegation is a delicate balance - it helps the groups or people you delegate to - but sucks your own upvote - which is why I end up paying out each month for delegated Steem Power - to cover the the Steem Power I delegate back out and keep my upvote reasonable - it makes no financial sense but I like supporting people and communities in any way I can.
I quite auto voting some time ago, bizarrely my autovote of a trail sometimes picks me up and votes my post for me - but other then that I keep my upvote to reward the content I like. Personally though I don't see the problem in self voting - it's your investment use it.
It's still all about people and community, and as long as you are active with both then everything is good.
Absolutely. It is just impossible to stay up on it daily every second....at least for the majority of us. I do try my best to manually curate most days even a few pieces. The autovote just helps aid me in taking care of people that I know for the most part, I would like to support.
The self voting thing can be a touchy debate. I see all points to it. For me, as much as I love this place and the people here, part of this is still a financial investment for me. I pumped funds in initially not only to help give me a leg up and aid in my "power " and "influence" here, but I know if I had some skin in the game that I would probably take it a bit more seriously. It motivates me a bit to not be lazy sometimes knowing that I have a bit riding on my success here. I self vote as it helps slowly cover my investment I pumped into it but my self vote is must a small overall fraction of the votes I give out to the community.
Keep on kicking ass. Oh, and when you get that Steem coffee deal done, lmk. My wife @reeseshara would like to buy some!!!