Jay - Id say between you me and DDave we can disprove #3 - look at all the links we have out there coming in to our index pages from recips - and remember at one time all of those recips were to the index page - and I dont think we have seen a declining page ranking - just the opposite if you ask me. True the links to inner pages will help on top of those index page links for moving the page rank through the site and getting more on-topic links.
The text surrounding links thing I also agree on - and do also agree that its been around for some time - just becoming something we started to realize had an effect recently
one of the biggest reasons blogs do so well
Content!!! added every day can make for a fantastic ride