That's like saying trying to sell your product is a sin.
Mind telling me how a consumer web startup is supposed to get others who are interested in X to visit his site about X? This is the basis of SEO: matching searchers to pages. It doesn't happen magically just by wishful thinking, and writing good content unfortunately.
No, it's like saying trying to lure people into buying something worse instead of the better is a sin. Like the product manufacturer secretly sneaking around in stores hiding competing products and putting their own in the front.
In this world, there will always be people who will attempt to sell you a shoddy product, and snake oil salesman.
But because that's the case, and you got a quality product, you're saying to sit tight, don't get out of the building, don't try to sell... and hope people will eventually choose you?
So how exactly is a consumer startup going to get people who want to know X to visit your site about X?
Mind telling me how a consumer web startup is supposed to get others who are interested in X to visit his site about X? This is the basis of SEO: matching searchers to pages. It doesn't happen magically just by wishful thinking, and writing good content unfortunately.