I've read somewhere that Steemit INC is planning to increase the beneficiaries limit from 8 to 256 in one of the upcoming hard forks but I'm not confirmed about it. 

You're right about the self-upvote thingy. That was one of the reasons for saying that winners vote list is expected to trend more often than payout posts. But you described it better than me. 

Thanks. I'm also excited about the project and your delegation should start pumping the things up now. ;)