But a lot of these SEO content farms that google/apple "streamlined" away added no actual value, they just tried to game their way towards being the top answer

But a lot of these SEO content farms that google/apple "streamlined" away added no actual value, they just tried to game their way towards being the top answer for "how tall was Abraham Lincoln". If they weren't there the answer would still be available on the internet (maybe in 50 duplicates instead of 5000) & google would have found it just as well.