I would disagree with you here!
Google and the search engines are advancing as technology does - they keep the end user in mind at all times.
They care more about the End User!
After all, without the users, the search engines are nothing right!!
So, with this being said, they are always working and tweaking their Algorithms to improve the End User's Experience.
Now, how can you rank well in the search engines?? ..
The answer is very simple and obvious, you must always keep the End User in mind as well!!!!
Before, you could rank any type of content, even crappy content. All you needed was massive backlinks and that's it. Those days are over my friend.
The search engines do not want their users to find crappy content, right!? ..
So they work hard every time to make sure the end user only finds QUALITY Content.
If you want to rank faster and want higher rankings, then you MUST work on the Quality of your content. Keep your reader in mind. Keep the search engine user in mind.
Today, only quality content gets the attention from the search engines. You can no longer rank crappy content, no matter how many backlinks you give it.
It's all about QUALITY NOW!!
Just think about it ... if your content is very original, very very valuable, it is solving specific problems, and not too many people have these same solutions, then guess what .. Google will love that content soo much! .. so much they might even rank you up without any backlinks!
When content is so so good, people start to link back to it naturally!
Think about this ..
When you find a great article, solving a lot of problems, and you really really like the information, what do you do??? ...
You might bookmark that site, and even mention it on your blog!! .. so you just gave that one site more exposure and a backlink because it was so damn good information!
Right?!! ..
This is the exact same thing you must create online, if you want to get a lot of free traffic from the search engines!
I have seen people rank pages without any backlinks, because their content was on point, very unique, EPIC, solved specifics problems, and people REALLY loved it!
This is how to rank in the search engines today!!
I hope this helps!
I wish you the best of the best!
Keep up the great work!
Cheers!