No, I'm making the claim that if you get in trouble with SEO - even if it's an honest mistake - being on the good side of the Google team can mean the difference between your company surviving or dying.

I can point to rap genius as a public example (and that wasn't even an honest mistake), but I've seen this happen myself and I've talked to a number of people who have admitted that Matt Cutts or someone on the search team personally intervened in their issue.

To clarify: I'm not saying anyone is taking action against people they don't like, I'm saying that it's very easy to not take action to help people you don't like.