Interesting take Andrew. It's true there's a lot of clever ways that SEO's promote themselves. If you're looking for a comprehensive SEO training class in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out http://www.clickminded.com for less "fakeness is how you win at the internets" tactics like the one you described here :)
or "how i tried to look like a nice person to promote myself, and now i am going to tell you about how i promoted myself to promote myself".
because faking it, explaining what a fake you are, boosting other fakers, and explaining and encouraging more fakeness is how you win at the internets. it's awesome.
