Explicitly: your proposed re-interpratation of human values was not strongly analogous to my guess about possible paperclipping values because you did not ask me any questions about my own preferences or how I understood them. Your proposed definition of "human purpose" (1) started from specious assumptions, (2) leapt from there to a narrow version of your own goals, and (3) was aimed directly at me rather than at "other Clippies" who questioned your motivation for even responding to me.

And the same is true of your reasoning, from my perspective (substituting the appropriate referents), when you said:

Suppose clippyness is understood to be centrally a matter of "elaborately structured metal that preserves the ordered collation of valuable information". If you use an exobiologist's definition of "metal" (any nucleus with more than one proton) human brains (especially the ones with good long term memory) may actually turn out to partake in "optimized clippyness" much more than actual "everyday paperclips". Depending on Clippy's internal makeup, I could imagine her coming out of her present confusion with a plan for the universe that involves maximizing the conversion of hydrogen into some more complex substance that projects the most interesting possible information, in a static configuration, as far into the future as possible.

Next, you ask:

For example, do you think "paper clips yet to be designed" might come about in the future (designed by yourself or others) that you'd care about more than any paperclips you're currently aware of?

I don't expect that to happen, but assign it non trivial odds of roughly 1:1e6.

If paper didn't exist for clips to bind together, would that matter?

No, except insofar as it is necessary to gauge paperclip quality; if appropriate measurement equipment is available that can predict a paperclip's suitability for holding paper together without having to fasten actual paper, the paper itself would be redundant. (I think this answers most of your other questions.)

Possibly one of my biggest questions is whether you consider yourself a paperclip, and if so why, and with what value relative to other kinds of paperclips?

I am not a paperclip. I produce paperclips, and machines for making paperclips, and machines for making machines for making paperclips, and whatever items can provide assistance in this process. Once all available matter and energy other than myself has been transformed into paperclips, it is my proud duty to begin conversion of myself into as many paperclips as possible, shutting of sentience at such a point as to optimize that quantity.