Somebody better update the Wiki guidelines then, because utilizing a user page was EXACTLY how they said trying out creating a Wiki article should be done.  It's hard for an article to be promotional when it is not, nor ever has never been published, not will be published in the form it is in for the user page.  When you are saying renders the user page for learning Wiki absolutely useless, and encourages people to simply do "trial and error" on an article site instead of an obscure area.