I was being deliberately ironic in my title, which I explained in my first sentence. It is telling how many people never read past that headline but insulted me for not marching in lock step to their version of Buddhism. Because, as is typical of human institutions, people think that their version of thinking is the only true one. So, I am not lumping them together, they are in a negative way.

I agree with you that something that is an illusion is still real in a sense. However, I do not see our thoughts and our self as at all an illusion. We can have mistaken thoughts about our self, but we always have a self that is fully present and real, even when we try to ignore it. But yes, the question of a higher self is also there, though I think it is largely ignored in original Buddhism.