Well if i'm to understand part of SEO to be link building, and alot of these links are from either paid links, companies with access to 1,000's of websites to add links, network of blogs, social networking sites etc. etc..

then most SERPs are black hatted!

The only true genuine PR vote (link) is someone off their own back, with no knowledge of PR or what an inbound link does for SE's, puts a link on their website, because they genuinely like the site they are linking to.

as soon as a webmaster, deliberately does anything what so ever to encourage a link to their site, that under G! guidlines is BLACK HAT!

be them paid links, recipricol, insentive based, auctioned, rewarded by some other method to make them look 'non-paid' , what ever.

So sorry, 99.9% of sites on page 1 for any given search phrase, is there through SEO , not because a million people on the planet genuinely love the site!

I don't recall any one but myself adding our site to directories!!!!!!

i don't recall a member of the public requesting I be included in DMOZ or paying for my site to be in the Y! Directory.

Jezus you SEO's really have your head up your ass sometimes!