I don't think it's as counterintuitive as it sounds - just because they're playing the game doesn't mean that they think it's right. If your options are to not

I don't think it's as counterintuitive as it sounds - just because they're playing the game doesn't mean that they think it's right. If your options are to not be successful at SEO or to do the SEO spam thing, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to do the latter - it's your job to make your startup successful, not to make a stand against the way Google does things. I view it as something like the rich folks who call for additional taxation of the rich. They're not going to just pay extra money that they don't have to under the current tax rules, both because it's not particularly fair and because one person paying extra taxes, even if they're very wealthy, isn't going to make a big impact. That doesn't mean they can't lobby to change the rules and be totally fine with it if everyone is paying additional taxes.