....There's no doubt the google team put aside X amount of dollars, and buy "the best packages" to even the worst on the BST (on all forums) and somehow dissect, blacklist sites, give negative points if a link comes from, etc.
Why would they do that?
They're a multi billion dollar business, what good does stopping a few random link packages in the WF BST do for them?
It's a waste of time. Instead they focus on improving their algorithm and detecting the techniques being used algorithmically. It's the Google way. Automate everything.
I enjoyed the video actually, it's weird hearing Cutts say "churn n burn" etc though. I also think the video is pretty legit in terms of its advice, too many people put too much trust in what other random posters say, without
thinking about what they're doing or analysing their own results/testing themselves.
Whenever you see someone post something, you've got to think of what the motives behind that post could be, and what they are trying to achieve by making it. For example, when I see a post by lukep in sts, I know his motive is to convince everyone that his decision to move to Thailand is correct, and that the US/western world is going downhill (not meant as a dig at you lukep). Thus, his arguments are always going to be biased (even if only slightly) in that direction. Likewise, a counter post from myself, living in the UK, I want to believe that there is hope, that I'm not going to die in a bloody revolution within the next few years and will tend to be more biased in the opposite direction.
Everyone has a viewpoint and everyone has a motive for everything they say and do. Whether that motive is to improve their own image, to better relationships with other people or make more money.
It makes sense to consider that with every person you deal with, especially when it's through an anonymous online forum, given the information you have available to you. Of course, you can tremendously improve your decision making by networking outside of the forum, finding out what people are doing in terms of projects, and understand the true motivations behind their products, posts, etc..
SEO isn't dead and never will be so long as search engines exist. The only thing I'm sure about is that the game will get harder year after year, and the barrier to entry will increase (as happens in any fledgling industry). Now is a great time to be setting yourself up on the web, and if I were solely focussed on churn n burn sites currently, I'd be looking into ways I could use the good money earned in that to develop long term assets which will make you income as those barriers increase in years to come.