No actually anchor text does affect the page that the link is on. Text within a 'a href' tag is considered important text on a page to Google. Anchor text affects both the page it links to and the page that the link is on. De-optimizing our sitemap would improve rankings because other pages are optimized to certain key phrases. So although it has a lower page rank, it has better keyword density and better optimization techniques implemented. A listing in a search result just titled 'sitemap' would get very few clicks as well. I don't have anything back-to-front, but would appreciate some advice.