It seems really odd to conclude that their marketing tactics do not work just because they 'bash' their competition in a series of blog posts. The theory also

It seems really odd to conclude that their marketing tactics do not work just because they 'bash' their competition in a series of blog posts. The theory also seems to disprove itself by the fact that the very posts in question are the most popular on the blog. I agree that there are 'classier' way of marketing yourself then semi-duplicate link/SEO-bait posts but does it work? Absolutely.