Does it not follow that using this class of tools is kind of like shooting yourself in the foot?

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean that most people cannot run this kind of bot? Or that this kind of bot is not good for the platform? Or both?

I have found that bots I design in ruby are sometimes ported to other languages, in some way or another. I see this as a proof of concept. Almost a specification for other designs that might be easier to use.

In the case of self-voting, if you always post good content, you should always self-vote. In some ways, this bot reinforces the need to always post good content since, at least for me, it's just automating something I already do. I'm just documenting it here.