SEO set and forget is there any value or...

I remember in 2011 I was able to rank a bunch of websites with AMR(Article marketing robot) just set and forget before the panda pop up, then in 2013 I was ranking on medium kw difficulty with pretty pro set up on GSA tiered link building.
Is there any software still worth or everyone just shooting here and there for PBN posts and of course private PBN's done by the owner is the best practice but I heard some bad opinions even on them.
So what are you guys doing these days when you have some micro niche websites ready for link building?

As far as me experience goes only parasite pages can now be ranked using automated tools and nothing else. Using GSA etc. on your own microniche site (amazon review, affiliate site etc.) does not work anymore. Only PBNs can help you rank or maybe renting links on high authority websites. The whole set and forget SEO has not been working for almost a year now. Links don't get indexed, new websites can't rank on top because aged domains are given higher priority, PBN links are getting costlier. No wonder there are so few "building a site from scratch" case studies here.

Also while parasite pages can be ranked quickly, they stay there for few weeks and then gradually die whereas authority sites stick as long as they are updated. Parasite pages can't be updated.