Well, maybe. But my site http://absurdlycool.com didn't go anywhere for a year until I got it on the Digg frontpage (got all my friends to Digg it back when that worked) and then it took off and has stayed at 5k unique per day ever since. The value of that Digg frontpage to me has been many thousands of dollars in revenue at this point, and that PR resulted in a subsequent write up on TechCrunch, LifeHacker, etc.
Yes and no. There's a lot of moderation (by human beings) is now going on, nonetheless we got our stuff on digg frontpage thrice without any "extraterrestrial" help, just submitted links. Last time it happened in Nov/2008.
Yet, it did not help much to grow visitors, in all the cases it just resulted in a spike and fall flat after that. Digg is totally useless as a promo service, same is true about Reddit, Stumbleupon & Co.
Look, they do it for the high. That's a lot safer than pretty much any other addiction - gambling, drinks, drugs, WOW, whatever. At least he recognizes it for what it is.
It's the same thing as we free speech zealots say about TV - if you don't like it, change the channel and let those who enjoy it have it. You don't like Digg? Fine. Then don't go there. (I'm sorry, but people getting all holier-than-thou about things as stupid as which social news site is better really gets on my nerves. Let's fight about something useful, like the Yankees signing Tex or something. :) )
