I would never argue this behavior is either beneficial to Steem, because its not, or that its ethical, because common sense seems to point otherwise.
That being said I don't know how this can be fixed, at least in a permanent more sustainable way with the way Steem works right now.
It almost seems unfair to expect a Steemian whale to use all of his/hers voting Power to combat Self Voting Abuse, because as anybody who cares to understand how the system works, there are no curation rewards for flags. Yet... in order for it to be sustainable for a Whale to combat abuse, said whale has to self vote or he/she would be doing it 100% for free. We might attempt to make an argument for moral/ethical high ground displays, but then again its also too easy for anyone who is not leaving money on the table to have "altruistic/utopian" suggestions.
To me, it makes sense the code changes once again. It may sound like a pain in the neck to think about more hard-forks to Steem, but I see no other way to this fiasco. A separate pool for flagging is the only solution I see to the problem... That way, a whale with good intentions can continue to curate good content, while also providing a lets say "cleaning" services to Steem's blockchain.
Can this lead to power abuse? Maybe, but I'm inclined to think it would level out eventually, as we have more than a few ethical people with big SP holding on the platform as well, who care what happens to Steem, but simply can't say they are going to become the Steemian Mother Theresa until the unethical behavior subsides to acceptable levels.
If there is anything we as a community should be pushing, at least in my opinion is that, a second VP for flags and maybe the implementation of Vote Negation as well.
Is there a better solution? Please somebody share, I'm willing to learn.
"It almost seems unfair to expect a Steemian whale to use all of his/hers voting Power to combat Self Voting "
Doing so is just a reverse form of communism, where only the "rich" have to pay the price for the proletariat.
"A separate pool for flagging is the only solution I see to the problem..."
I've noticed this hasn't been very popular the several times I suggested it. It literally got me flagged by the supposed anti-abusers.
I had no idea you caught a flag for making sense yet again. You know, truth be told, its hard to come up with a perfect solution to these problems, to me the solution is any has to be coded.
Like you've said plenty of times code is law, if its not in the code, then there is little we can do about things we disagree with, that might be a hard pill to swallow, but it seems to be an observation more than an opinion.
There is no solution without verified identity and equal steem power for all. Then you lose decentralization for that. You csn always make another account and vote yourself that way.
I am resigned to the idea with potentially annonymous members can always have a member that acts as if this member is any number of members. I take exception to you saying I undermine the " essence of cryptocurrency" though
So sign up 100 times? Oh yeah with identity that would prevent that. A Steem limit and identity.