Dear Marie, thank you very much for such an exhaustive opinion aboout article mkt. what are you saying it is surely what Google wants, and what ask us, as site owner or SEO, to do.
But we also know that a good mix of linking technique can be acceptable and can help also clients who don't have big budgets to develope great content and reach out for a real natural link building. It's simply not true that everyone can have great content. Some site simply cannot have it. And probably will not ever compete for highest rankings. But from my experience, in not high competitive niche, a bit of article mkt, some good directories and hopefully a few editorial links can still make a difference, especially for new domains without any links at all
And that's what I'm looking for: a few good articles mkt sites (3-4) to put some good articles on. That's what the client can afford now and I'm sure it is better then nothing.