[zx10rse]

OP is pretty on point. While internet is full of SEO junk, it was far more prevalent back in 2010-2014-5, where the main SEO strategy was to dump 500 words articles in web directories.

The difference is that back then there was an effort from companies like Google to fight the spam and low quality content. Everyone was waiting Matt Cutts( back then head of web spam and search quality at Google) to drop a new update so they can figure out how to step up their game. So at one point you could't afford to just spam your domain with low quality content because you would be penalised, and dropped from the search engines.

There is nothing like that today everybody is on the bandwagon of AI, somehow chatting with pdf documents is now considered by the tech bro hype circle as a sign of enlightenment a beginning of a spark of intelligence...