These changes are interesting. Thank you for writing this up. While being relatively new to Steemit and having only just posted an article for the first time today, I already feel like Steemit is on uneasy ground when it comes to this self-voting stuff.

I've seen a lot of opinions on the topic representing a few sides. Personally, I think this update is great – if self-upvoting is false by default, it basically requires you to stop and consider why an upvote is necessary before checking it to true – instead of just doing it automatically and leaving no room for further thought.

Do I think people NEED to be considerate about self-upvotes? I don't know. But, I do believe the following objective you/you guys are working on is pretty interesting.

Engaging the community to promote the idea of voluntary refusal to self vote.

It's not simply a promotion of voluntary refusal to self-vote, it's effectively promoting the discourse of an honor system(s) on Steemit. And honor is a pretty darn good thing, right?