Over the years, I have attended presentations at which knowledgeable practitioners relate what observers think are the rules based on how the search vendors behave and the hints they drop. This is a crazy way of doing business. Could you imagine filling out a tax return and not knowing until it has been filed whether it complied with the law or not? This is the system that is operating in web search and I cannot see what harm would come in having the rules known.( Actually, it is like playing a video game because the player does not know what works until playing the game many times.)
That would provide a level playing field. And if the rules shift, they would still be known, and it would eliminate what I consider to be an unnecessary industry - the SEO consultants. We know what the rules are in every other media that I am aware of; why not make the web more transparent?