I agree with your view that for solid SEO foundation a company at times needs to invest its resources. However there is still a difference. - Even post huge i

I agree with your view that for solid SEO foundation a company at times needs to invest its resources. However there is still a difference. - Even post huge investment you are not sure that you will get a preferred ranking on SERP - Also it takes time to reach the top. In case of PPC that time is less than a few minutes I believe the reason PPC+SEO shines is because the first 2 things the user gets (Ad + 1st result of his search) both point in the same direction and this increases his confidence