I've always been of the opinion that SEOMoz, SEOBook, etc have a vested interest in being vague and not really giving anything away. I don't have any idea what there is to "give away" but that article meant nothing to me at all except that buying links and junk links are junk.
The funniest thing is that Google give all the information away on their webmasters blog but people often reject the ideas. I think just want to believe there is some magic trick. Like if you put a little secret "web freemasons" link or word on a page, then nudge-nudge, wink-wink, you'll "rank".