No not at all... The primary factor is based on how Google's algo works - that being links - knowing the good the bad and the ugly!!! The problem is that most people are either too lazy or reluctant to dig into their pockets in procuring such backlinks... and when you look into the SERPs you will soon see that almost all of it is manipulated regardless of what G states...
Want to join the party? You do that with:
1) Creating your own resources which form part of a PBN i.e. purchase domains with the correct metrics re: trust and quality... or through serious efforts to create your own resources from scratch which forms part of your interconnected network....
2) Guest posting based on outreach with possible provision of financial incentives... targeting sites which have traffic and rankings.
3) Use tools such as GSA, SENuke, Xrumer and get into tiered link building....
That aside one should look beyond how G's algo works and also focus on alternative traffic means e.g. social, video, list building etc... Diversify and don't rely one source of traffic... In other words when you wake up and realize that traffic from other sources other than search is just as relevant then you'll see a ton of other doors open and eventually you'll reach the stage when you don't give a sh** about ranking....
The only thing that matters is traffic... targeted traffic and how well you convert.... and last and not least consider ads for immediate results in parallel to all efforts which require organic growth........... a combined approach is the way to go ;-)