Hehe, I think maybe you are overthinking it in the case of new accounts. Before HF 19 I was upvoting a lot of comments of my own because noone else did and so I got to the top of the heap . No consideration whatsever to earning since I often did not even see a return. After HF19 I started pay more attention.
l have to say that I have comments that paid much more then my so far 14 long form posts made TOGETHER . Before HF19 it was a lottery , now there is a bit more predictability which I think healthier .

For me it comes down to the fact that if you put effort in the comment, you want a maximum of people to read it, so WHY NOT upvote your own comment? Yes you give up some curation rewards by doing it earlier but if that means your comment is read first it can earn much better author rewards ! Upvoted myself, lets see if it works out !