Where in the flow above would you put items like: "Make sure that Google Authorship is set up?" Surely, you can't argue that this wouldn't help your content if implemented correctly. There is a long list of similar technical SEO items that smart publishers cover with every new article.

Your sentiment is just a reflection of the damage that SEO snake oil salesmen have created in our industry. These days, everyone claims to be a knowledgable SEO, and there are no straight forward ways to prove that (unlike, say, when you say "I know a lot about natural language processing"). Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater - good SEOs are still generating a ton of value at the top companies in the world.