I disagree that that is the sole (or even most important) point of a citation. Most of the time you can view a citation as part of the (extended, implicit) prob

I disagree that that is the sole (or even most important) point of a citation. Most of the time you can view a citation as part of the (extended, implicit) problem statement for the paper, e.g. here is what X did in this space, and we are different/better/build on that work by doing Y. If an important citation is missing, it shows you aren't familiar with what has been done before in relation to the problem you are trying to solve (bad). Of course reviewers and readers are free to disagree with your characterization of a cited paper in relation to your own. Having said that, maybe if you publish in journals a lot this is more of an issue. In conferences the Program Committee is usually set in advance so there is less scope to target specific reviewers (other than those on the PC).