I agree with your list Jake. Here are some ideas on how to mitigate two of the risks.

Lack of guidance – Develop an advisory board. The board can provide mentorship during the search and can potentially invest in the acquisition.
You lack credibility – Secure capital pledges. This way, the searcher can directly point to investors that may invest in the deal.

I'm just about to dive headfirst into a self-funded search and I can tell you all the points you've made resonate with me. While there is greater personal risk, it opens up other opportunities that make it seem like a reasonable trade off. One entrepreneur that seems to have been both successful with the self-funded route and has shared some great insight on why he pursued this route is ^redacted‌. He recently posted a great article that expands on your point about credibility - his post is about a broker's perspective. ^redacted‌ has a great podcast. He has interviewed several entrepreneurs that have been successful through clever application of help/funds to avoid some of the pitfalls you've mentioned.