But the thing is I asked the question of whether paypaling yourself was a good idea and the answer was that paypal would see regular paypals to yourself as money laundering / misuse.

The difference with the topup card it that you are loading a top up card. If you choose to withdraw it as cash then that's your choice and paypal has put a limit on the card at £10k to stop serious money laundering. Two topup cards and you're laughing all the way to a companion voucher (I don't have a PP card)

-mrploddy