As you point out, "The value of anything in relation to SEO is debatable", but this is essentially a common black-hat technique and although it can work, it
usually only does so for a few weeks before the domains start being banned. And because few if any of the sites involved are considered authoritative, it depends entirely on massive numbers to be effective.
In theory you could get enough participants, but until/if you did, I have a strong suspicion that the risk would be much greater than the potential reward.
A neat bit of scripting for all that
