It can be summed up in your sentence, "Alas, say Buddhists, no such self exists." It does not say that self does not exist, only that what we usually call as self (mental projections, identities, etc.) is not it. But as I said, most Buddhists understand it the way you do. So, they strive for meditative bliss (another illusion) or they end up with crazy ideas that anything goes (not that it does not) and even violence is ok (just look at Buryats committing atrocities in Ukraine being proudly Buddhist).

However, the end result is not an "'enlightened' Buddhist’s neutral stance towards a known monstrosity." If it was, Siddhartha (who was a Hindu, btw. and thus a consummation of the Vedic tradition, in the vein Jesus was a Jew who set out to set straight what's wrong with Judaism, if we give their existence the benefit of doubt) would not bother to share anything.