You can learn seo from reading...choosing reliable sources is essential. Experience is one important method but not the only.
Patience with a trustworthy mentor is my favorite recipe for good SEO (SEO that works). Followed with Analytics to measure your efforts.
It also may be because these site owners didn't read this from Google. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html
As for your 5)... I think that this forum is a huge knowledge base, you just have to read and discover what interests you. You can learn a lot about SEO... I don't know where else would you learn about SEO if not on this or other forums? Anyway, I agree with the first four arguments.
LOL, I knew this was frowned upon but 'Uber' SEO Company offer to do this for you, idiots. They also claim to be able to change the age of your domain as it appears on whois, is this possible? And if so, surely thats frowned upon too.