What @berniesanders say may be rough, but it's the hard truth. The way the Steem blockchain works incentives everyone to be content producers. We Steemians can't compare ourselves to regular internet folks who binge Buzzfeed videos. We are all trying to be the youtubers and the medium bloggers of the blockchain. What incentives non-steemian content creators to go great lengths to create content elsewhere in the internet?
That's right.
And if it helps them to motivate themselves, a self-vote that big of a deal.
And to honest self voting isnt even that much of an issue when compared to the other problems the Steem blockchain is currently facing.
Not everyone. You see only a part of the ecosystem and believe that this is it. There are curators, voting bots, people looking for advertisment, and many others. Soon (hopefully) this ecosystem will grow even more with SMTs.
What other issues?
I believe @kevinwong did a few very explanatory posts about it.