Sascha over at Zettelkasten has a different take on backlinks
https://zettelkasten.de/posts/backlinks-are-bad-links/


Paul Korm wrote:

The technology of Roam or Obsidian is not new -- the developers are
using existing off the shelf components. What's "new" is that the
business of linking "notes" (or something more granular within a note)
is bringing broader awareness of the uses of hypertext theory and
information theory dating back decades.

The question that fascinates me about all this "new" interest is "why
now -- what changed". Obsidian or Roam could have been written a
decade or more ago. And if then, they probably didn't generate much
interest. (How many people bought Storyspace when it was first
published 33 years ago -- Storyspace then, and now, has the same goal as
these new toys.)

I read in Obsidian's forums very detailed posts about ZKs, PKMs, and
MOCs, and PARA and blah blah. Underlying the efforts behind these
trends seems to be a general feeling of being overwhelmed by
"information" (or data, really -- it's just data) and trying to make
connections between "everything I think about .. everything I read ...
everything I worry about". It's seductive.