For decades now, SEOptimizers have constantly found new tricks to get their websites ranked higher than they should, while search engines have constantly update

For decades now, SEOptimizers have constantly found new tricks to get their websites ranked higher than they should, while search engines have constantly updated their algorithms to make them harder to game like that. These two things have co-evolved in response to each other, and what this article laments is the result of exactly that process. But the interaction between SEO and Google search is way more complex than the article implies. In particular, the influence goes both ways, and it's not a clear one-way cause and effect relationship. Also playing into this are a lot of other factors, like the increasing commercialization of the web, how the online advertising business works, Googles dominant position in both web search and web advertising, etc... I really don't think the solution to this can be as simple as "change how Google rewards keywords". It's not that simple.