Viral marketing and SEO: the two worst parasites of the internet.
Same with marketing. If I don't provide you value, I don't deserve your attention or your links or whatever.
Lumping the sheisters with the legit ones is unfair. I could just as easily say that developers are the scum of the Internet because some write programs that hack sites and steal credit card information. But then I'd be lumping all developers into the same category of scum, making the same logical fallacy you're making.
Just my two cents.
That's where the so called "viral" strategies come in, leveraging the social integrations and viral sharing described in the article. Quick hacks to gain the user growth you need to become a viable business.
A great launch plan does incorporate good SEO and search visibility. Denying SEO is adding value for your projects/startup or company because there are scumbags out there, is IMHO putting you at a disadvantage vs your competition who are looking and taking advice from people like John!
There have been plenty of insightful discussions here at HN about the need for SEO. Rather than spilling negativity and dismissing a valuable service, you might want to try to listen and learn something.
Grouping companies/people as knowledgable as this in with the bad fruits is unfair because the gap between them is so vast.
I agree with you, I have very negative opinions on the term 'SEO', and those who use it. Sure, there might be 'good' SEOs, but I believe the experience of the majority of people, even geeks, of SEO is finding websites high up Google rankings which clearly have no place being there.
[Disclaimer, I'm one of the founders of Distilled - the company John works for. Brand issues very much acknowledged btw - we are thinking hard about it - trust me!]