[tomcam]

Obviously, stop for a month or 6 and measure the results. I can already tell you won’t be able to tell the difference.

Backlinks are irrelevant at best or destructive at worst unless you have reports you can check manually. Check each link. Every backlink not on a directly relevant site is another signal to Google that your site should be deindexed.

[qax]

Can you share a bit more about backlinks not on a directly relevant site? Where do you check them? GA?

[tomcam]

For whatever else their shortcomings, Google is relentlessly focused on a good customer experience in search. If you are on a guitar site, do you really want to see an ad for knitting supplies? If your business is making sure senior citizens get the right medical workups, do you really want to see links from plumbing supply places?

You need to check those links one by one yourself. There is no other way to do this effectively. Suppose you are getting links from a porn site, for example. Google will not like you. Not one little bit.