Using links to judge quality of a site works in theory, but is too easy to game by article spinning etc, and so any proper “quality content” needs to get unnatural links before it starts getting natural ones from real people who actually enjoy that content.

However, I do think it makes sense to keep writing good content, as hopefully those natural links will come after the initial push is made and people actually see your site.

I personally think the biggest problem of the links system is that the system was designed for finding information, not for finding products or services. It came about before the internet was overly commercial.

Ultimately, you don’t judge how good, say, a plumber is by how many good quality articles they have written on their website. Forcing companies to write lots of content in order to push their sites up the listings seems a waste of everyone’s time.

That said, the local listings seems a way forward. If searches for services were ordered by locality to you, rather than by SEO factors, then that seems a much fairer system for businesses.