Yes and no - There was always the threat of others linking BS to your money site and capping you - that has never changed, and to think that penguin will ultimately destroy all your hardwork doesn't make sense.
Its how you automate and at what speed, what setting, and what IP's your blasting your links to and from.
I'll agree that the algo is better (there have been some who were affected, yet majority of them with some work were able to recover) . You mention unnatural, define what that is and I guarantee there is a way to set GSA to make it look 'natural.'
Remember - those who are use GSA and getting garbage would be using terrible settings, and just linking to who knows what URL they are scraping - Thats obviously going to get flagged eventually.
Be smart, go slow, get URLS and filter/vet them before use, and use articles that you've either hand written or hand spun and passed copy scrape to minimise detection (its not fool proof - but it defintely improves your chances of getting good SEO results)
PS: Totally agree with you there. Neg SEO seems to be far easier than good seo
I guess the big G is trying to get us to pay for there ads to get first place.. bummers.
