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I would tend to disagree about the blogs getting axed - Yes the spam logs where anyone can sign like a guestbook will probably be hunted down, but since Google has bought Pyra and runs the blogger.com show as well as putting a blogger add button in its new version of the toolbar, I kinda doubt they would cut off their own nose.
The original question about the index page trades - Im one of the ones that has always done it, and it seems to count for something in others backlinks - that said, the index page would have to include some content to be worthwhile - otherwise it just comes out as a linkfarm - Ive been experimenting with the limits and so far it seems that having alot of outgoing links to other authority (same genre) sites helps. It also allows for more of your own sites to be listed on the index page to transfer PR(or at least get them spidered) without the crosslinking penalty problem. Balancing the number of links is something that seems to be beneficial, but by the same token, remember that that leaves less PR to transfer internally, so its best to have internal category link trades already in place to boost the cat pages.
One other "different" effect I've seen recently, is that the number of links coming into the index page and their respective PR, is not as important as the "authority" of the site the link is coming from. Somehow Google has assigned some ranking number that isn't PR to grade the links. Im hoping I can figure out what their grading process is, as so far the only thing I have seen as widespread is that TGP sites are getting a big boost right now?
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