I had been forcing male flowers on female plants for years, using either Gibrellic Acid spray, or aspirin treatments. ( Now-a-days, I use the GA for germinating seeds only)
Have not found either of these methods to 'cause' hermies in any of my later genetics at all.

IMHO, if a plant's genetics are already prone to hermie, (poor seed storage, over-breeding a strain, generations of poor growing/lighting conditions...) then it doesn't really make much difference. You'll possibly breed-in a certain number of hermie traits.

Is it not true that at the end of a unproductive season, the plant knows it has not been pollinated, so goes into emergency self-pollinating mode? Isn't this a genetically imprinted response, and shouldn't be seen as adversly altering the genetics of the seeds?

GL