Ofcourse, but it depends on several factors, if you were lucky to snatch a 2 or 3 letter domain before the days of Google, you would have should it by now for a whole lot more than you bought it, and owuld be investing it in other areas, nowadays things are a little tough, but there are still new niches and new opportunities\.nJust have to keep your eyes and ears open to the possibilities
Be consistent with your marketing, provide a good service and success will fall upon you! Just give it some time and be persistent at setting personal and business related goals.
I also feel this is true. This is because they got a head start befor google took control of every bodys abilite to make a living on the internet.
I mostly aggree with you but I still think its possible to start a new site just with lots of harde work .
There isn't a lot of originality left. I say just keep working and don't even worry about Google or any other search engine. Let them work autonomously and stop giving them so much power over us.