How do you view PBNs in 2017? Would you ever consider purchasing a site that is ranking with a PBN or is it just too risky? I've read conflicting opinions, some saying that if it is done is a silo'd way and the content is not terrible, its not such a big deal.

There is some grey area as it pertains to content farms though. Google has penalized sites for creating a ring of sites that point to a central property, even if the content is hand created, of "okay" quality, etc.

Where has google penalized hand created content sites of okay quality where a ring of them link to a central site? I'd highly doubt that happens if the content truly is of okay quality.

Unless your quoting okay meant that the content is barely okay aka not good at all. Then the links the sites get could be crap too and some other factor could be the reason for the penalty.

One example of the algorithm deciding a site was a "content farm" https://www.labnol.org/internet/blog-as-content-farm/18750/

By "okay", I mean content written by someone in their first language, with intent to be useful. Not necessarily great, but not intentional filler.

Thanks. I was a bit skeptical at first. May have sounded like sort of a dick as a result. But thanks for for the link. Cheers!