I certainly agree that Google devalues links if there’s too high a proportion with exactly the same anchor text. As you know, if you’re running a link building campaign it helps to vary the anchor text to make them look natural.

As for paid links, I’ve got mixed feelings about that one – on one hand I see where they’re coming from, as basically paid links distort the relevency of results, however on the other hand, they’re penalising anyone who hasn’t got a ‘nofollow’ in a link to their site, which sometimes you don’t have control over. Additionally, what is Adwords if it isn’t a variation of ‘paid links’, albeit CPC.

Just my thoughts anyway..