@Gatochweg ~ Thank you for agreeing with me that self downloading should not count into the download total.
Simmers don't sit there for hours self downloading. They don't need to do that because once they boost the creation into the popular now section then the whole gallery does the rest of the downloading for them. That is how the current and the old gallery system works. Everyone sees the "popular now" section so all a simmer needs to do is self download over the first 24 hours of an upload. Anyone can self download easily and quickly. As I said I have studied this for the past year now and if you check my original forum post on this you will see more information. I admitted then and admit again that for the purposes of gathering evidence back then I did self download and found that I could add +1, +1, +1 approximately 5 times in just 1 minute. Now imagine the simmer only wanting the popularity and to be seen especially at the top of that page. They will happily sit there and in only 5 little minutes give themselves 25 more downloads. 10 minutes = 50 downloads etc. So, all a simmer needs to do is spend about 10-20 minutes, not all at once but over the first 24 hours. Then they are the rock stars of the gallery because the whole gallery sees them after that in the popular now section. Then, the whole gallery takes over and legitimately downloads that initially self downloaded creation. That is a straight up fact and it needs to be fixed immediately especially if EA/Maxis leaves the popular now as default as is.
