Here's a stab: The culture here is such that comments are for the sake of the readers and not the writer. Some amount of self-promotion is fine, but too much is not appreciated.
Additonally, I've spent thousands of hours over the course of a decade obsessing over design details and historical context. Then, I spend a week crafting a blog post to condense a piece of my knowledge for sharing. I then ask for an opportunity to spend hundreds of hours preparing a presentation to share more of my knowledge. Somehow this is self-serving?
I don't need more (or more prestigious) clients. A SXSW badge is (relatively) inexpensive. I do all of this because I love to share knowledge. I understand what it's like to be turned off by shameless self-promotion, but sometimes a little perspective is called for.
Edit: that sounds snarky. It's not intended to be, but just an explanation of why I downvoted. I can appreciate your later comment, but when I made my reply to your original comment, yours was the only other comment in the submission. It seemed tacky.