That concern is probably warranted, someone can get banned for a unnatural backlink profile. To be reconsidered they have to go through all their bad backlinks

That concern is probably warranted, someone can get banned for a unnatural backlink profile. To be reconsidered they have to go through all their bad backlinks and either have them removed or tell google why they can't have them removed. A few blog networks and someone could potentially knock out a competitor for some time.