Good points about link building Dave.
I'm a little in between on the coding. I agree that, especially with Google, things like hx tags aren't going to be key. No search engine cares either if your code validates and things like that. A strong link profile is also going to outweigh site coding for the most part.
However there are coding mistakes that can practically doom you from the start. A Flash navigation with no alternative for example. If search spiders can't find your pages they're going to have a hard time listing them in the results.
I also think a search friendly coded site helps to increase your chances of success. Organizing your content around keyword themes, fixing up
SEO gotchas, etc. Most coding problems can be overcome by a strong link profile, but the more you get right with the code the less strong your profile might need to be. And in low competitive markets coding (with a few good links) can be enough to make you competitive.
In the end I think it all works together. The more you don't get right in one aspect, the more you need to get right in another. Overall though, yes, links still outweigh most everything else.