I honestly don't see that self-voting does much either way on a small account. It really does not help visibility, and it does not increase payout substantially. I never up-voted my own comments on someone else's work, or even my own; I find it kind of strange that anyone would.
A problem that is bigger than self-voting (at least for small accounts) is the abuse of down-voting - and if anyone down-votes someone just because they self-voted, that IS an abuse of the option. It isn't there for that.