The leak is what i've been saying for years and everyone looked at me like im crazy. Links still matter, google chooses to put whoever they want at the top(i think i saw that in there). They need clicks as a measuring tool when both sites have links. Bad links only hurt small sites not big sites who have millions of bad links, they may have a separate algo for that. Every update there is a new goal post for sites. Mobile speed rank first(needs to stop small sites ranking who cant afford servers etc), I've had big companies reach out to guest post on my site so it does still matter.
To sum it up yes seo is dead for small companies.