it's still NOT white hat, though. White hat = you never, ever, EVER buy or build a single backlink yourself. EVER! Period!
If you're involved even to a small extent (beyond just publishing content and sharing it on social media) in acquiring links with the intent of SEO purposes then you're doing black hat. Or call it grey hat if you need to calm your conscience down. But white hat it definitely isn't, no matter how much quality you bring to the table.
In google's eyes, white hat = publish content, black hat = build links to gain SEO value. And if you get a niche edit it's precisely gaining SEO value, therefore not white hat no matter how you spin it...
This being said, black hat is still the way to go long term as content alone will not keep you ranked for years. And if it does, you're the exception to the rule, not the norm...