> I've become increasingly disgusted at what it's become, in particular the rise of the whole "SEO phenomenon" that's basically become a cat-and-mouse game between site owners and search engines. Large corporations and SEO spammers have the resources to play this game, while the smaller independent site

It's essentially a replay of what killed Usenet. And the "SEO experts" are every bit the vile blight on the web as spammers were on Usenet.